| Mount Fiske | |
| Elevation Ft: | 13503 |
| Elevation Ref: | [1] |
| Prominence Ft: | 823 |
| Isolation Mi: | 2.12 |
| Isolation Ref: | [2] |
| Parent Peak: | Mount Darwin (13,837 ft) |
| Etymology: | John Fiske |
| Listing: | Sierra Peaks Section |
| Map: | California#USA |
| Map Size: | 250 |
| Label Position: | left |
| Location: | Kings Canyon National Park Fresno County California, U.S. |
| Range: | Sierra Nevada |
| Coordinates: | 37.1366°N -118.6678°W |
| Coordinates Ref: | [3] |
| Topo: | USGS Mount Darwin |
| Rock: | granite |
| First Ascent: | 1922 |
| Easiest Route: | Southeast Ridge |
Mount Fiske is a 13,503-foot-elevation (4,116 meter) mountain summit located near the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, in Fresno County of northern California, United States.[3] It is situated in northern Kings Canyon National Park, west of the community of Big Pine, east of Mount Huxley, and two miles south of Mount Darwin, which is the nearest higher neighbor. Mount Fiske ranks as the 60th highest summit in California.[2]
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Mount Fiske is located in an alpine climate zone.[4] 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). This climate supports the Mount Fiske Glacier in the north cirque. Precipitation runoff from this mountain drains southeast into headwaters of the Middle Fork Kings River, or northwest into Evolution Creek which is a San Joaquin River tributary.
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.[5] [6] These six peaks are now known collectively as the Evolution Group. This mountain's name commemorates John Fiske (1842–1901), an American philosopher and historian.[7] The other five peaks were named after Charles Darwin, Ernst Haeckel, Alfred Russel Wallace, Herbert Spencer, and Thomas Henry Huxley.
The first ascent of the summit was made August 10, 1922, by Sierra Club member Charles Norman Fiske, his sons John Norman Fiske and Stephen Burlingame Fiske, and Sierra Club member Frederick Kellett via the southeast ridge.[8] The first ascent via the Southwest Ridge was made on August 18, 1939, by Jack Sturgeon, also of the Sierra Club.[9]