jdb@qubix.UUCP (Jeff Bulf) (02/17/84)
Just to nit-pick the man from Colorado (Im jealous of course) not all of Californias 13 14K-ft peaks are in the Sierra Nevada (aka "the Sierras"). Mount Shasta, standing by itself between the Sierra and the Cascades, is in the League with Ranier and Fuji. A world-class holy mountain. Mount Whitney, by contrast, is just one bump on a ridge of bumps. It does not even look like the highest on from some angles. -- Dr Memory ...{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!qubix!jdb
donn@sdchema.UUCP (Donn Seeley) (02/19/84)
It certainly is true that most of the 14,000 foot peaks in California are on the Sierra crest -- just looking at 14,000 foot peaks on my handy USGS wall map of the area around Mt. Whitney, I can see 9 within a 50-mile stretch. It's also true that the peaks are hard to tell apart: they form one side of a huge fault valley that runs up the California-Nevada border, called the Owens Valley. (A very good book about the area, by the way, is BASIN AND RANGE by John McPhee; it is a beautiful and thoughtful book for laymen interested in geology, a rare gem.) From Highway 395, which runs up the valley, the Sierras appear to be an immense and sometimes monolithic wall. For what it's worth, here are the peaks I found by looking at the map: Mt. Whitney 14,494 ft. (Tallest mountain in the lower 48) Mt. Williamson 14,375 ft. North Palisade 14,242 ft. Mt. Russell 14,086 ft. Split Mtn. 14,058 ft. Mt. Langley 14,042 ft. Middle Palisade 14,040 ft. Mt. Tyndall 14,018 ft. Mt. Muir 14,015 ft. I know of one other California peak besides Mt. Shasta which is not in the Sierras: White Mountain Peak (14,246 ft.). As its name indicates, it is in the White Mountains, which are also home to the Bristlecone Pine Forest. The White Mountains form part of the eastern wall of the Owens Valley. White Mountain Peak doesn't look as high as the Sierra peaks because it has much less snow on it -- the White Mountains are in the rain shadow of the Sierras. Still missing two mountains, Donn Seeley UCSD Chemistry Dept. RRCF ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!donn