Mount Farquhar, or Mount Francis Farquhar, is a peak in Kings Canyon National Park

Kings Canyon National Park

Kings Canyon National Park is a National Park in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of Fresno, California. The park was established in 1940 and covers...

. It is named in for of Francis P. Farquhar

Francis P. Farquhar

Francis Peloubet Farquhar graduated from Harvard and came to San Francisco to set up in practice as a Certified Public Accountant...

, a conservationist who played a key role in creating the park.

Geography

Mount Farquhar is, in the southern portion of Kings Canyon National Park, on the Great Western Divide

Great Western Divide

The Great Western Divide is a Sierra Nevada mountain range that forms part of the border between the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. The High Sierra Trail crosses the range at Kaweah Gap from Sequoia National Park.- References :...

 north of North Guard and Mount Brewer

Mount Brewer

Mount Brewer is on the Great Western Divide, a sub-range of the Sierra Nevada in California. It is located in Kings Canyon National Park,The peak was named for William Henry Brewer who worked on the first California Geological Survey and was the first Chair of Agriculture at Yale University's...

. Its west facing slopes feed Sphinx Creek, while its east facing slopes feed Cross Creek and North Guard Creek. All of these drain through Bubbs Creek to the South Fork of the Kings River

Kings River (California)

The Kings River is a major river of south-central California. About long, it drains an area of the high western Sierra Nevada and the Central Valley. A large alluvial fan has formed where the river's gradient decreases in the Central Valley so the river divides into distributaries...

.

History

This summit was informally known as Notch Peak, after the prominent notch in its profile when seen from the east, until 1989. That year, the United States Geological Survey

United States Geological Survey

The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...

's Board on Geographic Names recognized a new name of the peak to commemorate Francis Farquhar, who had died fifteen years earlier. Farquhar, a local mountaineer

Mountaineer

-Sports:*Mountaineering, the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, trekking and climbing up mountains, also known as alpinism-University athletic teams and mascots:*Appalachian State Mountaineers, the athletic teams of Appalachian State University...

, had worked as an author and a director of the Sierra Club

Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...

 to protect the Kings Canyon region of the Sierra Nevada.

Climbing

The first ascent was made on July 17, 1932 by the South Ridge route. A large first ascent party was composed of Dorothy Baird, D.R. Brothers, Alice Carter, Norman Clyde

Norman Clyde

Norman Clyde was a mountaineer, mountain guide, freelance writer, nature photographer, and self trained naturalist. He is well-known for achieving over 130 first ascents, many in California's Sierra Nevada and Montana's Glacier National Park...

, Glen Dawson

Glen Dawson

Glen Dawson is a California rock climber, mountaineer, antiquarian bookseller, publisher and environmentalist.- Early life :...

, William Dulley, Patricia Goodhue, Katherine Lindforth, Julie Mortimer, Arthur Neld, Lincoln O'Brien, Thomas Rawles, John Schager and Alfred Weiler. They scrambled

Scrambling

Scrambling is a method of ascending rocky faces and ridges. It is an ambiguous term that lies somewhere between hillwalking and rock climbing. It is often distinguished from hillwalking by defining a scramble as a route where hands must be used in the ascent...

 cross country to the Sphinx Lakes, climbed to the col

Mountain pass

A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...

 south of the peak, and ascended by its south ridge.

Other established routes on Mount Farquhar include the Northwest Ridge (class 3

Yosemite Decimal System

The Yosemite Decimal System is a three-part system used for rating the difficulty of walks, hikes, and climbs. It is primarily used by mountaineers in the United States and Canada. The Class 5 portion of the Class scale is primarily a rock climbing classification system. Originally the system was...

), the Blank Stair Route (grade IV, class 5.10+), and the Northeast Face (grade IV, class 5.8) put up in September 1971 by Jeanne Neal and Galen Rowell

Galen Rowell

Galen Avery Rowell was a noted wilderness photographer and climber. Born in Oakland, California, he became a full-time photographer in 1972.-Early life and education:...

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External links