The meaning behind the name is believed to originate from the many inconveniences of the mountain: big bear population, surrounding swamps and rocky slopes, resulting in its area being a troublesome herding place.

Up to 1,000 – 1,100 m elevation, the mountain slope is covered with mixed forest, in some places with driftwood, occasional alpine meadows and rocky outcrops.

Above 1,100 m elevation, there are no trees or bushes, and instead rock streams of various sizes, with grass, flowers and moss start to appear.

[2] Yamantaw, along with Kosvinsky Mountain (600 km to the north), are claimed by the United States of being home to a large secret nuclear facility or bunker, or both.

[3] Large excavation projects have been observed by U.S. satellite imagery after the fall of the Soviet Union, as recently as the late 1990s during the government of Boris Yeltsin.