Mount Wallace (Fresno and Inyo counties, California)

Mountain in the state of California

Mount Wallace
Northwest aspect
Highest point
Elevation	13,377 ft (4,077 m)
Prominence	337 ft (103 m)
Parent peak	Mount Haeckel (13,418 ft)
Isolation	0.39 mi (0.63 km)
Listing	Sierra Peaks Section
Coordinates	37°08′49″N 118°39′24″W / 37.1468068°N 118.6567979°W / 37.1468068; -118.6567979
Naming
Etymology	Alfred Russel Wallace
Geography
Mount WallaceLocation in CaliforniaShow map of CaliforniaMount WallaceMount Wallace (the United States)Show map of the United States
Location	Kings Canyon National Park Fresno County / Inyo County California, U.S.
Parent range	Sierra Nevada
Topo map	USGS Mount Darwin
Geology
Rock age	Cretaceous
Mountain type	Fault block
Rock type	granitic
Climbing
First ascent	July 16, 1895
Easiest route	class 3

Mount Wallace is a 13,377-foot-elevation (4,077 meter) mountain summit located on the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in northern California, United States. It is situated on the shared boundary of Kings Canyon National Park with John Muir Wilderness, and along the common border of Fresno County with Inyo County. It is 21 miles (34 km) west of the community of Big Pine, 1.38 miles (2.22 km) northwest of Mount Powell, 0.5 miles (0.80 km) southwest of Picture Peak, and 0.37 miles (0.60 km) southeast of Mount Haeckel, which is the nearest higher neighbor. Mount Wallace ranks as the 79th-highest summit in California, and the ninth-highest in the Evolution Region.

History

In 1895, Sierra Club explorer Theodore S. Solomons named a group of mountains in the Sierra Nevada after exponents of Darwin's theory of evolution. These six peaks are now known collectively as the Evolution Group. Solomons wrote: "At a distance of two miles it rises perpendicularly five or six hundred feet, forming Mt. Haeckel, and a mile beyond again rises several hundred feet higher, though not quite so sharply, forming the peak called Mt. Wallace... Next morning we climbed Mt. Wallace." This mountain is named for Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913), a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist who is best known for developing the theory of evolution contemporaneously with Darwin. The other five peaks were named after Charles Darwin, John Fiske, Ernst Haeckel, Herbert Spencer, and Thomas Henry Huxley.

The 1895 climb by Theodore Solomons and party was the first ascent of the summit.

Climate

Mount Wallace is located in an alpine climate zone. Most weather fronts originate in the Pacific Ocean, and travel east toward the Sierra Nevada mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall onto the range (orographic lift). Precipitation runoff from this mountain drains northeast into Bishop Creek, and west into Evolution Creek, which is a San Joaquin River tributary.

Gallery

Mt. Wallace's summit centered (behind ridge)
Picture Peak (left), Mt. Haeckel in upper right. Clyde Spires far left.
Mt. Haeckel centered, top of Wallace behind ridge to left