Mount Yale is one of nine fourteener

Fourteener

In mountaineering terminology in the United States, a fourteener is a mountain that exceeds 14,000 feet above mean sea level. There are 547 fourteeners in the world. The importance of fourteeners is greatest in Colorado, which has the majority of such peaks in North America...

s in the Collegiate Peaks

Collegiate Peaks Wilderness

The Collegiate Peaks Wilderness is a area located in central Colorado between Leadville and Buena Vista to the east and Aspen to the west and Crested Butte to the southwest. Most of the area is in the San Isabel and Gunnison National Forests, with a smaller area in the White River National Forest...

, in the central part of the Sawatch Range

Sawatch Range

The Sawatch Range is a mountain range in central Colorado which includes eight of the twenty highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains, including Mount Elbert, at elevation, the highest peak in the Rockies....

 near Buena Vista, Colorado

Buena Vista, Colorado

Buena Vista is a Statutory Town in Chaffee County, Colorado, United States. The population was 2,195 at the 2000 census.Buena Vista is located in central Colorado roughly midway between Salida and Leadville in the Upper Arkansas River Valley at an elevation of . The area between Buena Vista and...

. It is the 21st tallest peak in Colorado and the 5th highest in the Collegiate Peaks.

Geography

The term "Collegiate Peaks" comes from some of its individual peaks, which are named after universities, including Mount Harvard

Mount Harvard

Mount Harvard is a fourteener in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is the third highest mountain in Colorado, and also the fourth highest mountain in the Contiguous United States...

, Mount Princeton

Mount Princeton

Mount Princeton is one of the fourteeners of the US state of Colorado. It lies in the Collegiate Peaks, in the central part of the Sawatch Range, just west of the Arkansas River. While not one of the highest peaks of the Sawatch, it is one of the most dramatic, as it rises over 6,500 feet from the...

, Mount Oxford

Mount Oxford (Colorado)

Mount Oxford is one of the fourteeners of the US state of Colorado. It lies in the Collegiate Peaks, in the central part of the Sawatch Range, just west of the Arkansas River. It lies approximately east-northeast of the slightly higher Mount Belford...

, Mount Columbia

Mount Columbia (Colorado)

Mount Columbia is a mountain in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, in Chaffee County, Colorado, United States. At 14,077 feet, it is one of Colorado's fourteeners...

, and Mount Yale itself. Much of the upper part of the mountain is covered in scree

Scree

Scree, also called talus, is a term given to an accumulation of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, or valley shoulders. Landforms associated with these materials are sometimes called scree slopes or talus piles...

 and boulder fields.

History

Mount Yale was first climbed by a research team from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 led by Josiah Whitney

Josiah Whitney

Josiah Dwight Whitney was an American geologist, professor of geology at Harvard University , and chief of the California Geological Survey...

. The group named the taller Mount Harvard (14,420 ft) after their own university and the shorter Mount Yale after Whitney's alma mater.

Due to the similarity in heights of Mount Princeton and Mount Yale (Princeton is 1 foot (0.3048 m) higher), it was once a tradition for the alumni of each school to carry rocks to the top of their respective mountain in order to add to the stone pyramid built at the summit. The graduates used these rock towers to ensure their mountain was the tallest.

Hiking

Mount Yale has achieved great popularity as a non-technical fourteener. The mountain offers fantastic views of the Sawatch Range and Buena Vista, and is a favorite "training" mountain for those wishing to tackle more difficult fourteeners later in the season.

The standard route for climbing Mount Yale was once Denny Gulch, but overuse turned the trail into both a safety and environmental issue. The Denny Gulch trailhead was closed by the Forest Service

United States Forest Service

The United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...

 for restoration, and now most hikers use the nearby Denny Creek Trailhead to begin their hike.

The climb up Mount Yale is generally considered to be moderately difficult, and can be attempted by any hikers in good physical condition.
Mount Yale is climbed each year by Overland

Overland

Overland may refer to:* Overland Storage, a robotic tape library manufacturer, formerly known as Overland Data.* Overland, Missouri, a city in the United States* Overland High School in Aurora, Colorado...

. Overland is a youth camp for kids who want to climb a 14er.

See also

• List of Colorado fourteeners
• Mountain peaks of Colorado
  Mountain peaks of Colorado
  This article comprises three sortable tables of the major mountain peaks of the U.S. State of Colorado.Topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a precise mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface...
  
  
• Mountain ranges of Colorado
  Mountain ranges of Colorado
  The following table lists the major mountain ranges of the U.S. State of Colorado.-Mountain Ranges:-See also:*4000 meter peaks of Colorado*Colorado mountain passes*Geography of Colorado*Lists of mountains*Mountain peaks of Colorado...