Mount Sonder, or Rwetyepme, its Aboriginal name, is the fourth highest mountain in the Northern Territory, Australia at 1380 m. Mount Zeil is the highest at 1531 m, 27 km to the west.

Location and features

Mt Sonder is 130 km west of Alice Springs along the MacDonnell Ranges in the West MacDonnell National Park. It marks one end of the celebrated Larapinta trail, which extends 223 km to Alice Springs. The shape of the mountain is a double peak, the relative heights of which are somewhat ambiguous from the summit, although easy to identify from the surrounding plains. The mountain can be seen from the western half of the Larapinta trail, up to Ormiston Pound, which obscures it from then on. Explorer Ernest Giles named the mountain in honour of German botanist Dr. Otto Wilhelm Sonder. A clearly defined walking track exists up the western side, which is about 12 km long. Water is available from a tank 50 m beyond the carpark, and there is a direction plate at the summit. This however is not the true summit, which is a further 750 m away, but has been chosen for safety reasons. The view from the top boasts the taller Mount Zeil to the west, the West MacDonnell Range to the east, Glen Helen, a nearby resort, to the east and Gosses Bluff to the south-west.