Mount Pinos and Frazier Mountain are two prominent mountains just south of the San Andreas fault in the western Transverse Ranges of southern California, a region that has undergone rapid Quaternary contraction and uplift. Both mountains are underlain, at least in part, by thrusts that place granitic and gneissic rocks over sedimentary rocks as young as Pliocene. Broad profiles and nearly flat summits of each mountain have previously been interpreted as relicts of a raised erosion surface. However, several features bring this interpretation into question. First, lag or stream gravels do not mantle the summit surfaces. Second, extensive landslide deposits, mostly pre?Holocene and deeply incised, mantle the flanks of both mountains. Third, a pervasive fracture and crushed?rock network pervades the crystalline rocks underlying both mountains. The orientation of the fractures, prominent in roadcuts on Mount Pinos, is essentially random. 'Hill?and?saddle' morphology characterizes ridges radiating from the summits, especially on Mount Pinos; outcrops are sparse on the hills and are nonexistent in the saddles, suggesting fractures are concentrated in the saddles. Latest movement on the thrusts underlying the two mountain massifs is probably early Quaternary, during which the mountains were uplifted to considerably higher (although unknown) elevations than at present. A model proposes that during thrusting, ground accelerations in the hanging wall, particularly near thrust tips, were high enough to pervasively fracture the hanging?wall rocks, thereby weakening them and producing essentially an assemblage of loose blocks. Movement over flexures in the fault surface accentuated fracturing. The lowered shear stresses necessary for failure, coupled with deep dissection and ongoing seismic activity, reduced gravitational potential by spreading the mountain massifs, triggering flanking landslides and producing broad, flat?topped mountains. This study developed from mapping in the western Transverse Ranges as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's Southern California Areal Mapping Project (SCAMP).