Isolation 15.71 mi (25.3 km) Prominence 924 m | Elevation 4,315 m First ascent 10 September 1874 Parent range San Juan Mountains | |
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Listing North America highest peaks 51stUS highest major peaks 37thColorado highest major peaks 18thColorado fourteeners 27thColorado county high points 16th Topo map USGS 7.5' topographic mapMount Sneffels, Colorado First ascenders Allen D. Wilson, Frederic Endlich, Ford, Franklin Rhoda Similar Mount Wilson, Wilson Peak, Uncompahgre Peak, Wetterhorn Peak, Handies Peak | ||
Mount Sneffels is the highest summit of the Sneffels Range in the Rocky Mountains of North America. The prominent 14,158-foot (4315.4 m) fourteener is located in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness of Uncompahgre National Forest, 6.7 miles (10.8 km) west by south (bearing 256°) of the City of Ouray in Ouray County, Colorado, United States. The summit of Mount Sneffels is the highest point in Ouray County.
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Map of Mt Sneffels, Colorado 81432, USA
MountainEdit
Mount Sneffels is notable for its great vertical relief, as it rises 7,200 feet above the town of Ridgway, Colorado 6 miles to the northeast.
The primary route to the summit follows a creek bed up from Yankee Boy Basin. A secondary route follows a ridge line to the summit from the saddle of Blue Lakes Pass.
Mount Sneffels was named after the volcano Snæfell, which is located on the tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in Iceland. That mountain and its glacier, Snæfellsjökull, which caps the crater like a convex lens, were featured in the Jules Verne novel A Journey to the Center of the Earth. An area on the western flank of Mount Sneffels gives the appearance of volcanic crater.
Seen from the Dallas Divide on State Highway 62, Mount Sneffels is one of the most photographed mountains in Colorado.