Black Peak

Black Peak rises in Washington’s North Cascades within both North Cascades National Park and the Stephen Mather Wilderness. At 8,975 feet, it is the state’s twentieth-highest peak, and its 3,450-foot prominence makes it one of Washington’s more distinct summits. U.S. Forest Service surveyor Lage Wernsterdt first climbed it in 1926 and gave it its present name; a 1983 effort to rename it Mount Wernstedt was later withdrawn. The mountain stands in a range shaped by tectonic activity, terrane accretion, uplift, faulting, and repeated glaciation, especially during the Pleistocene, while Pacific weather systems bring heavy winter precipitation and generally clearer summer conditions.

Washington · United States