Whitehead of the U.S. Forest Service renamed it Mount Deception due to the difficulty mountaineers had in locating climbing routes on the often cloud-covered peak.

[5] Unlike the peaks of Gray Wolf Ridge, which are scalable for fit and determined day hikers, mountaineering skills are necessary for Mount Deception itself.

Fatalities have occurred on Mount Deception and the National Park Service recommends climbers be experienced in self-arrest skills, rock climbing, and route-finding.

[9] The adjacent Needles are typically regarded as providing better, and somewhat more difficult, mountaineering objectives in the Royal Basin area.

As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Olympic Range, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall (Orographic lift).

[12] The mountains were sculpted during the Pleistocene era by erosion caused by glaciers advancing and retreating multiple times.