The High Sierra

Sierra Nevada is unusual in its combination of a Mediterranean climate and great height. There aren't that many Mediterranean climates on Earth, found as they are behind west-facing mid-latitude coasts, with their brief cool damp winters and their long hot dry summers. There are five, in fact: the Mediterranean itself, southwest Africa, west Australia, Chile, and California. Tall mountain ranges in these regions occur only in California and Chile, with lower (and thus less glaciated) examples around the western end of the Mediterranean itself, in Spain's Sierra Nevada and Morocco's Atlas Mountains.