Mount Yale facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mount Yale |
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Mount Yale is the highest peak seen in this picture
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 14,200 ft (4328.2 m) NAVD88 |
| Prominence | 1896 ft (578 m) |
| Isolation | 5.55 mi (8.93 km) |
| Listing |
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| Geography | |
 Mount Yale
Location in Colorado
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| Location | Chaffee County, Colorado, U.S. |
| Parent range | Sawatch Range, Collegiate Peaks |
| Topo map | USGS 7.5' topographic map Mount Yale, Colorado |
| Climbing | |
| First ascent | August 18, 1869 by William Brewer, William Davis, Robert Moore, S. Sharpless, Josiah Whitney |
| Easiest route | 4.5 mile hike |
Mount Yale is a very tall and well-known mountain peak in the Collegiate Peaks area. It's part of the Sawatch Range in the Rocky Mountains of North America. This amazing mountain is one of Colorado's "fourteeners," which means it's over 14,000 feet (4,328.2 meters) high!
Mount Yale is found in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness of San Isabel National Forest. It's about 9.4 miles (15.2 km) west of the Town of Buena Vista in Chaffee County, Colorado, United States. The mountain was named to honor Eli Yale, who was important to Yale University.
What are the Collegiate Peaks?
The name "Collegiate Peaks" comes from several mountains in the area. Many of them are named after famous universities. Besides Mount Yale, you'll find Mount Harvard, Mount Princeton, Mount Oxford, and Mount Columbia.
The upper parts of Mount Yale are covered in "scree" and "boulder fields." Scree is a pile of small, broken rocks that have fallen from the mountain. Boulder fields are areas with lots of large rocks.
History of Mount Yale
The first people to climb Mount Yale were a research team from Harvard University. This group was led by a person named Josiah Whitney. They decided to name the taller mountain, Mount Harvard (which is 14,420 feet high), after their own university. They named the slightly shorter Mount Yale after Whitney's old school, Yale University.
For a long time, there was a fun tradition between alumni (people who graduated) from Princeton and Yale. Mount Princeton and Mount Yale are very close in height. Princeton is only one foot (0.3 meters) taller! So, graduates from each school used to carry rocks to the top of their mountain. They would add these rocks to a stone pyramid already built at the summit. They did this to make sure their mountain stayed the tallest!
Hiking Mount Yale
Mount Yale is a very popular mountain for hiking. It's known as a "non-technical fourteener," which means you don't need special climbing gear to reach the top. It's mostly a long hike.
When you climb Mount Yale, you get amazing views of the Sawatch Range and the town of Buena Vista. Many hikers use Mount Yale as a "training" mountain. This means they climb it to get ready for other, more difficult fourteeners later in the year.
The main path for climbing Mount Yale used to be called Denny Gulch. But too many people used this trail, which caused problems for both safety and the environment. Because of this, the Forest Service closed the Denny Gulch trailhead to fix it. Now, most hikers start their climb from the nearby Denny Creek Trailhead.
Climbing Mount Yale is generally thought to be quite easy for a fourteener. Many people can complete the hike successfully.
