Also Glacier, Canyon, Bench

The peak was named in 1895 by Theodore S. Solomons and E. C. Bonner. 'Immediately upon our right towered a long, thin ridge of reddish buff granite, fully two miles in length, whose crest rose into several peaks, the whole upper surface of the wall being crowned with fantastically shaped pinnacles ... which we called Mt. Darwin.' (Solomons in Appalachia 8, no. 1, 1896: 47.)

The first ascent was made by E. C. Andrews of the Geological Survey of New South Wales and Willard D. Johnson, USGS, on August 12, 1908. 'I begged [Johnson] to allow me to take our record in the small baking-powder tin ... and place it on the actual summit ... I made use of a monstrous icicle one foot in diameter to assist me in climbing the broken masonry of the outstanding peak. I had just placed the record in position on the summit, and was looking around for a few loose rocks with which to secure it -- and I commenced the fearful descent to the chimney for this purpose -- when it dawned on me that that the descent was more perilous than the ascent ... I thereupon reached upward for the tin, placing it in my pocket, knowing full well that I would never have the courage to make the ascent of the chimney the second time.' (Letter, Andrews to Farquhar, sept. 26, 1923, in SCB 12, no. 1, 1924: 88-90.)"
- Peter Browning, Place Names of the Sierra Nevada

About Charles Darwin: