Mount Vinson is the highest point of the Sentinel Range, the northern half of Antarctica’s Ellsworth Mountains. The range contains the Vinson Massif, whose summit rises to about 4,892 meters (16,050 feet), the highest elevation on the continent.
The Ellsworth Mountains form a long north–south chain in western Antarctica. Minnesota Glacier divides them into two major subdivisions: the Sentinel Range to the north and the Heritage Range to the south. The Sentinel Range is the higher and more prominent of the two, with many peaks exceeding 4,000 meters.
American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth first photographed the range from the air on November 23, 1935. The range was later surveyed during the 1958 Sentinel Mountains Traverse and mapped extensively by the U.S. Geological Survey using aerial photography and ground work.
A frequent mix-up is confusing the range with the entire Ellsworth Mountains. Mount Vinson is the highest point of the larger mountain system, but its immediate range is the Sentinel Range—not the Heritage Range or another Antarctic chain.