Columbine Peak's Spiky Helmet & Clouds

---

Kings Canyon National Park, Fresno County
late afternoon Saturday September 6, 2003, slide 03W12-18
Pentax 67 AEII, 55-100 zoom, Gitzo G1325 Mk2
Drum scanned Fuji Provia 100F 220 film to 200mb RGB file
Adobe Photoshop 6.0 processed for accurate image fidelity
Lightjet5000 printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper
signature bottom right

---

Columbine Peak at 12,662 feet is located at the south side of Dusy Basin in Kings Canyon National Park. Columbine is also a bit less than two miles west of higher peaks of the well known Palisade Crest, including 14,242 foot North Palisade. As such, the summit is regarded by climbers to have one of the best views of the Palisades. An unusual fact about the peak is it possibly the only peak on the west side of Sierra Crest south of the Ritter Range which can be see from US395.

This Columbine face is towards the northwest while its opposite side faces Palisade Basin. On Labor Day in 1986 several of us climbed the peak via the class 3 erete from Knapsack Pass. Part of that route can be seen here as the skyline ridgeline at frame right. Both sides of the ridgeline in this frame, right or left of the broader summit, quickly narrow to a thin erete of fractured blocks. Geology of the peak as well as the surrounding area is totally granite. Subducting rock which melted miles beneath the North American continental plate, then slowly cooled, hardened, and through geologic time rose to the surface while higher rock strata eroded away. Much of the erosion here as well as throughout the Sierra Nevada has been rather recent geologically during several ice age periods of the last million years. Like many steep rock faces of high alpine areas, avalanching snow and frost wedging have loosened much rock from the face which lies here as talus. Enough debris has formed to create what is termed a small rock glacier. Rock glaciers are characterized by a leading steep front wall of rock that slowly pushes forward due to gravity on growing masses of rock debris and ice uphill behind it.

Note part of that wall at the lower left frame corner.

Rocks at ridgelines which incur the harshest weather, are often the most fractured. And Columbine's ridgelines are among the most spectacular I've seen, especially from this location close to the base of the peak. Many of the blocks are truly huge. At the summit one can crawl far down into a shadowy pile of such boulders. I moved to this viewpoint to take the image because it presented a smooth curving helmet shaped ridgeline. Flat vertical slabs of light gray granite have surface weathered to fine shades of rust, yellow, and gold giving the rock a beautiful quality late in the afternoon. On this afternoon clouds dominated behind my position to the west for quite some time as I waited for a chance to take the image. Fortunately when my opportunity came, a few nice clouds were still over the peak to complement the intense deep blue sky. Though they nearly blend in with rock, the only living things in the image are a number of stunted whitebark pines, pinus albicaulis, which nearly blend in with cracks that protect them from winter snow avalanches. One such pine is 65.2% of the way across from the left frame edge by 29.5% up from the bottom edge. In fact three other small pines are nearby. Near my camera position was an alpine lake with golden trout, turfy meadow, and many wildflowers.

Crop at 100% print size:

   David Senesac
   email: sales@davidsenesac.com

return to home page