The peak is situated in Glacier Bay National Park, 4 mi (6 km) southeast of Mount Dagelet, 7.6 mi (12 km) south-southeast of Mount Crillon which is the nearest higher peak, and 28.6 mi (46 km) southeast of Mount Fairweather, which is the highest peak in the Fairweather Range.

Topographic relief is significant as the mountain rises up from tidewater in less than nine miles.

The mountain was named in 1874 by William Healey Dall of the U.S. Geological Survey, for Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse (1741–1788), a French navigator who explored this coastal area in 1786.

[3][4] The first ascent of the peak was made in 1953 by USGS party consisting of James Seitz, Karl Stauffer, Rowland Tabor, Rolland Reid, and Paul Bowen.

[5] On February 16, 2014, a colossal 68 million ton landslide broke free from the flanks of Mt.