[3][2][4] Mount Sneffels is notable for its great vertical relief, as it rises 7,200 feet above the town of Ridgway, Colorado 6 miles to the northeast.

The primary route to the summit follows a creek bed up from Yankee Boy Basin and is rated class 3.

Mount Sneffels was named after the volcano Snæfell, which is located on the tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in Iceland.

That mountain and its glacier, Snæfellsjökull, which caps the crater like a convex lens, were featured in the Jules Verne novel A Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Geologically, the mountain is a Tertiary aged igneous stock (Ti) composed of intermediate rock (monzonite, monzodiorite, granodiorite, and minor monzogranite) intruded into a volcanic stack of older San Juan Volcanics (Tsj).