[3] Mount Fernow's prominence is 2,811 ft (857 m), making it the sixtieth-most-prominent peak in Washington.

Other large glaciated peaks are nearby, such as Seven Fingered Jack to the south.

[4] Mount Fernow was named by Albert H. Sylvester in honor of Bernhard Fernow, a German forester who moved to the United States and worked for the Division of Forestry in the United States Department of Agriculture in the late 19th century.

[3][5] Mount Fernow was first summited in 1932 by a party including Oscar Pennington and Hermann Ulrichs.

[6] A small unnamed lake sits on the northwestern slopes of Fernow.