[5] It is set on the crest or Main Divide of the Southern Alps, where it is the highest peak of the Butler Range.

[2] Jakob Lauper (1815–1891) was a Swiss mountain guide who accompanied Henry Whitcombe, a surveyor for the Canterbury Provincial Council.

When George John Roberts (Chief Surveyor in Westland) mapped the Rakaia headwaters during the 1880s, he named the peak west of Whitcombe Pass after Jakob Lauper.

[5] The first ascent of the summit was made in January 1914 by Fred Kitchingham, Charles Ward, and Lawrence Gooch.

The months of December through February offer the most favourable weather for viewing or climbing this peak.