Skip to content

Lunchtime Photo

Well, this is embarrassing. Not only is this not Mount Whitney, it's not within a hundred miles of Mount Whitney. A look through the original series of photos tells me that this picture was taken while heading south on US 395 just before the Mammoth Lakes exit. That makes it Laurel Mountain . . . I think? Which clocks in at a puny 11,818 feet.

The original post, in all its mistaken glory, is below.


This is Mount Whitney, highest mountain in the contiguous US at 14,505 feet. It beats Mount Elbert in Colorado by 65 feet, which just goes to show the misfortune of being #2 by even a tiny amount (less than half a percent in this case). After all, who's ever heard of Mount Elbert?

I chose to render this in shades of gray instead of the high contrast that's more typical of black-and-white alpine photos. Not only was this more faithful to my recollection, but it just seemed right.

QUIZ: Everyone knows that Denali is the highest peak in the US. Without looking it up, what's the second highest?

February 16, 2021 — Inyo County, California

40 thoughts on “Lunchtime Photo

  1. erick

    I thought it was Mt Whitney, but based on you asking the question after the picture of it I guess that’s wrong and it must be the 2nd highest peak in Alaska, I have no idea what that is, like you said who remembers #2????

  2. Native Elf

    Mt. St. Elias (although it's not wholly in the US)
    Mt Fairweather is next and entirely on US soil, I think?
    no Googling, so I may be off

    1. erick

      Yeah I just googled and that is correct.

      I had no idea Alaska had so many tall mountains, Mt Whitney only comes in 11th

          1. TriassicSands

            There's not a single mountain (I use the term loosely¹) east of the Mississippi that even makes it to 7,000 feet. That's why I had to go west as a young man.

            ¹Mt. Katahdin in Maine and Mt. Washington in NH deserve the name because of potentially extreme weather conditions. The Appalachians had there time millions of years ago and may even have rivaled today's Himalaya and Karakorum ranges.

          2. RZM

            This can be a little deceiving. For example, if you go roughly 9 miles east of Mt Elbert to route 2 you will have dropped 5000 feet . Pretty steep. If you go roughly 9 miles southeast of Mt Washington down route 16 toward Jackson, NH you will drop OVER 5000 feet. Which is why the view looking north up toward the Presidentials in New Hampshire is pretty impressive.
            http://www.mwestonchapman.com/mt-washington-winter-climb/

          3. KenSchulz

            To Brett and TriassicSands, the mountain snobs,
            Writing from Connecticut, where the highest peak is not even the highest point; the only state with that distinction, I believe. We have any number of formations here named as ‘mountains’, though no peak reaches 800 meters. But people were shorter when those were named. 🙂

            1. Brett

              I envy you folks having the ocean nearby, though.

              The people I do pity are those living on the Great Plains. Just flat and hot, with maybe a river once in a while.

        1. fredtopeka

          If we're doing comparisons:

          there is one mountain above 6000 meters in North America (Denali), while there are 100 in South America;

          there are no mountains above 7000 meters in the Western Hemisphere (Aconcagua, at 6961, is the closest), while there are more than 100 such in Pakistan.

      1. pjcamp1905

        Alaska is on the leading edge of a subduction zone, just like Chile and Italy. Many many volcano for many many time.

    2. Native Elf

      So I looked it up, and I forgot about a bunch between St. Elias and Fairweather, which is also partly in Canada. Foraker, Bona, Blackburn, Sanford. Three more between Fairweather and Whitney - Hubbard, Bear and Hunter. Fairweather is truly amazing, though, because it's over 15,000 feet and only about 10 miles form the coast, so it's relief is mid-boggling.

    3. bbleh

      Lol not only had I never heard of Mt. St. Elias, I had never heard of St. Elias, or even frankly the name Elias. Strike three I guess.

      Not that striking a bio. Wonder why they named it after him. Or maybe they were just running out of names after a bunch of mountains. "Hey, there's another one, where's the list? Dang! Anybody know a saint not on this list?"

  3. dmsilev

    Some would claim that it's Mauna Kea.

    (if you start your measurement at the base of the mountain, which in this case is well below sea level)

    1. TriassicSands

      As a climber, I've always thought the whole Mauna Kea is the tallest was just plain silly. Although as hard as it may be to breathe at the summit of Everest without supplemental oxygen, it's undoubtedly more difficult at the base of Mauna Kea if you accept its base as being underwater -- plus one might feel just a little squashed.

      Note: It would be nice if we could edit. Their not there in my other comment.

    2. chester

      A factoid: The highest point in Mountain West Wyoming is only eight feet higher than that of island paradise Hawaii.
      Measured from sea level, I suspect.

  4. cld

    Without looking it up, what's the second highest?

    A social conservative's psychopathically inflated sense of self-importance?

  5. tomsayingthings

    Mt Elbert doesn't even have a fan club as the tallest peak in Colorado. It's kind of unassuming. For years people measured and remeasured it that the nearby Mt Massive -- which is much more impressive and only 10 feet shorter -- in hopes that Elbert would be deposed. It never was, and to this day people slide by Mt Elbert with barely a glance while the stop to oooh and ahhh at Mt Massive.

    Elbert needs a better publicist.

  6. Greg Apt

    I've climbed Whitney several times, I've driven by it innumerable times, and always am checking it out because I love the area so much. Lone Pine is one of my favorite places as the gateway to Whitney. I've backpacked to Whitney from the backside as well. That being said, I cannot recognize that as Whitney for the life of me. It doesn't appear like any view of it that I've seen before. Of course, it's not a terribly distinctive single mountain, so it's possible it's just a strange angle.

    But if I had to have bet, I would've guessed that was Mt. Langley, which is one large peak to the south of Whitney and also over 14,000 feet. It's a similar hike as Whitney, albeit perhaps a little easier in that the climb starts at 10,000 feet rather than 8,000 feet for Whitney. But about the same distance, and a long day's slog. But so worth it! I think the Sierras are among the most beautiful places on the planet! The rocky facades do not do it justice for just how beautiful that area is once you go a little higher and are in the mountains.

      1. Greg Apt

        I thought I was going crazy! I didn't want to come straight out and say he was wrong, in case I really was crazy! But it clearly didn't seem like Whitney to me. Whitney is distinctive mostly because it's incredibly indistinctive where it is. It's just one of many jagged peaks. Even climbing it you could easily miss which one is it. And at the top you don't have that sense like I get watching videos of people summiting Everest or other memorable peaks that you're at the top of the earth, or way above everything around you.

        That being said, the area is beautiful, and anyone living in California or Vegas should go there and spend some time, not just at Whitney but all the areas around it

  7. J. Frank Parnell

    Mt. Whitney beats Mt. Rainer (aka Tahoma) by a slim 94 feet. Pierce County, Washington, still qualifies as the county in the contiguous U.S. that has the most elevation change, extending from -607 feet in Commencement Bay to the +14,411 foot summit of Rainer.

  8. Rattus Norvegicus

    I looked at it and went what? That's not Mt. Whitney. You did have a picture of Mt. Whitney when you took a shot of Lone Pine Peak. It's the one with the spikey summit ridge to the south.

  9. golack

    If you go on Google Earth you can see the river cuts, e.g. follow the Susquehanna River through PA and NY. As the mountains were rising, the rivers were carving through them.

  10. illilillili

    I'm having a hard time getting our angle using google maps from 395. If I use Google Earth and climb the hill north of 395, I feel like I can get that angle...

Comments are closed.