MOUNT YALE OVERVIEW Mount Yale and its 14,202-ft. of talus rests within the backbone of the Colorado Continental Divide, the Sawatch Range. This complex range stretches nearly 100 miles north and south, starting at Tennessee Pass and ending at the Marshall Pass area. The Sawatch is home to 15 fourteeners and 14 centennial thirteeners; no other Colorado mountain range contains as many peaks above 13,800 ft. When hiking this range, there are a few things you can count on, long approaches, plenty of vertical, and endless class 2 hiking. Mount Yale is the eighth highest peak in the Sawatch Range and twenty-first in the state on Colorado. Driving through the Arkansas Valley Mount Yale is hard to pick out since there is a ridge extending to the east covering the view of the summit. The peak is located due west of Buena Vista. Mount Yale received it's name from J.D. Whitney, which he named after his almamater in 1869. Whitney (head of the Harvard School of Mining), W.H. Brewer and C.F. Hoffman of the California survey along with students from the first class to graduate from the Mining School went to Colorado to survey the peaks for two reasons, first to give the students practical work and second to investigate the rumor that these peaks, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia, were higher than the peaks in California. All of Mount Yale's routes are class 2 hiking which allows even the novice hiker an attainable summit. Keep in mind, Yale is in the Sawatch Range, and one should expect the normal 4,000 ft. of elevation, so be in shape. Also, expect to see a few hikers around, because the standard Southwest Ridge via Denny Creek route is the most popular route. Part of its popularity can be attributed to a paved road all the way to the trailhead.