[5] This geographical feature's descriptive name, due to black iron-bearing minerals, was shown on an 1893 Le Conte map as Gray Peak, and was officially adopted in 1897 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.

[3][6] In 1920, Ansel Adams left a Sierra Club cylinder-type register at the summit.

[7] 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).

Precipitation runoff from this mountain drains into tributaries of the Merced River.