Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Final answer on the elevation of Whitney

NOAA_TR_NOS_NGS_0064.pdf well this will put to rest the questions , Oh but not till 2022 and then the age old problem reference datum?
and a follow up DBZ_NAPGD2022_and_Alaska.pdf

When one adds the 2017 and this later update it is easy to see why ,during the 80's and still ongoing to establish where we are and how high.
My thoughts start with the top of Danali as the reference Datum and all else on our side of the marble would be (-) call it all eles is downhill.

It's very simple. What elevation does Mt. Whitney identify as?

Dear sirs:

https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10.1139/geomat-2019-0021
https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/PUBS_LIB/NOAA_TR_NOS_NGS_0064.pdf


There will be a test...

Sincerely,

Mr. Footnote
he/him/his

Believe Mountains!

Doug,

As you know anytime you put two surveyors in a room there will be at least three opinions on any given subject. If you ask again the next day the previous three opinions will be discarded and replaced with 5 more.

I still haven't given up hope for a proper survey of Mt. Barnard. To my knowledge it has never received a proper vertical survey- the estimated NAVD'88 elevation is 13,996 feet. That is probably +- 10'. I give it 1:4 odds of surveying out higher than 14,000.00 feet.

Wouldn't it be grand to add another "Fourteener" for the YouTube generation to Vlog about? To be safe, before any survey maybe some of those overzealous cairn builders should head over that way.

Jim, PLS

Might need the cairns at Langely? Somewhere in the past I recall Barnard was 14001 then down to 13990 ,I don't know if these were VBM's or barometric ,when we traversed and did the double foreward and back most often we would check in very close say 1-2 feet over about 20 miles ,Very hot vallies and cool mountains tops was the worst sometimes 3-5 foot we could never get closer,so how Bernard changes I don't know ,unless datum from West and another from the east side?
Now this next adjustment horizontal and vertical will be interesting for driverless cars!
Unpublished White Mount is still higher than Whitney I hear that often,Well King was sure he was on the highest summit and recall many of the first Sierra maps were about 6 miles off.

Back in the days when you could dayhike Whitney without a permit, I heard that White Mountain Peak was supposedly higher. All I had was a barometric altimeter, but I set out to test this hypothesis as well as I could. I climbed Whitney first (up the MR in 4:16). The next day, I hiked White Mountain Peak. I took readings on both summits, plus a reading each of the three times I passed through Big Pine. Whitney came out around 150’ higher, and the readings in Big Pine showed that weather wasn’t playing havoc with my summit readings. Busted!

But facts have never been enough for some! Did the Fresno students also add White mountain in the GPS survey some years ago ? I always thought a Colorado peak would be found higher since the earth is now considered round and Colorado is higher on the arch it only makes it logical some would be higher.

Some years ago a survey (Topo) was done in the Portal using GPS I talked with the surveyor and said I knew where one of the 1905 Benchmarks was, and it had stamped on it the elevation in 1905, He took a shot on the bench and to our surprise it was within about 1 inch , was it luck or just saying the Portal is somewhat stable.

My thoughts it isn't the elevation it is the vertical difference from a starting benchmark say in Lone Pine , measuring to the Portal then onto say trailcamp , trailcrest then the summit compare the vertical difference to the 1928 first order run.