New Height for Mt. Elbert?

[SLKRR]

Would it be considered cheating to use oxygen on that climb?

[jdorje]

Interesting read.

It looks to me like the raising of the elevations is due to a revising of the geoid that actually lowers sea level in this area by the oft-referenced 5-7 feet. Bill mentioned that we should have hyper-accurate elevation measurements taken via GPS & satellite, but from what I read I don't think that's the limiting factor for our most prominent peaks. We have the ability to use GPS to get a high level of accuracy (this is done along earthquake fault lines, with the right software and tons of measurements with the GPS in the same location averaged). What's missing is our knowledge of the geoid, i.e., how high sea level would be at a particular location. Naturally this is a bit hard to measure for places like Colorado, and is really defined by the gravitational gradient which can't even be measured since it is underground (or even if measured underground, would become inaccurate due to the thousands of feet of rock above). In theory then what we'd need is a hyper-accurate way to measure gravity at a specific location, and from this gravity an elevation can be derived. 1 g, aka 1 earth gravity, would define sea level while a place that only has 0.998663206g (based on back-of-the-hand calculations) would be at 14000 feet. Of course if the sea level began rising a couple of feet a year then everything goes to hell regardless.

As for "Sunlight Spire", it seems there are two obstacles for being recognized on this site. The first would be an official measurement, which may already exist for all we know or the original elevation may only have been approximated since it is not a "real peak". Secondly is that it has to become a "real peak", which Bill defines as something either named or with suitable prominence. So for all of you arguing for it, you should start by applying to have the USGS officially name it Sunlight Spire. Shouldn't be too hard.

And one more anecdote: I once hiked up to a pass in the Himalayas at 4050 meters. I turned around at 14000 feet (4275 meters or so), at least 100 meters short of the destination. Many countries don't have anything corresponding to the USGS, or if they do it's part of the military and isn't willing to share data.

[kenike]

Wow, thread ressurection!

This is such an interesting read. Thank you all! I'm not the most scientific (which is not to say I'm not smart, I just go more off of right brain), so this is quite educational to me.

Frankly, I don't care how high a mountain is. I just want to have a good climb or hike.

[cbauer10]

Don't worry, the polar ice caps are melting and sea-level is rising, so Sunlight Spire, if it is 14,000.89 feet, will be back below 14,000 feet before you know it. Sunshine will follow suit. I will just wait until the Spire is back below 14,000 to claim I climbed all of the 14ers. Although deep down, I do want to go climb this thing. Just not sure if it is in the cards for me.

[SLKRR]

In related news:

Researchers who are working to fix global positioning system (GPS) errors have devised software to take a more accurate measurement of altitude - particularly in mountainous areas.

The software is still under development, but in initial tests it enabled centimeter-scale GPS positioning - including altitude - as often as 97 percent of the time.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Resea ... n_999.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;