...OT...Roof of the World....and THE Q...New All Time HIGHS.....
Everest Gets a Height Boost
With Modern Tech, New Measurement Higher
By David Ho
The Associated Press
W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 12 ? Burdened with oxygen
tanks, climbing gear and cameras, Bill Crouse
and his fellow climbers arrived at the top of the
world.
With the brown, arid plateau of Tibet stretching to the
north and the mountains and green valleys of Nepal to the
south, the climbers spread out their special gear on the
snow-covered summit of Mount Everest.
The equipment they assembled would communicate
with a fleet of satellites to help answer a deceptively
simple question: How high is the highest point on Earth?
Undermeasured
Now, six months later, the answer has been revealed:
Mount Everest rises to 29,035 feet, 7 feet higher than the
altitude officially recognized for 45 years.
Bradford Washburn, 89, director of the Millennium
Expedition to Mount Everest, presented the new
measurements Thursday at the National Geographic
Society.
?We now know much more about the configuration of
our Earth ... than we did 40 years ago,? Washburn said.
Three other teams have climbed Everest since 1995 as
part of the project. The climbers have placed measuring
devices and other scientific sensors at key points on the
mountain.
Monkeys in Space
Crouse, 35, of Carbondale, Colo., along with expedition
leader Pete Athans of Boulder, Colo., and five Sherpa
climbers spent nearly two hours on the summit on May 5,
half of that time collecting data from Global Positioning
System satellites.
?We felt like monkeys in space,? Crouse said after the
presentation, noting that their job was to push buttons to
transmit data to stations below.
It took months of number crunching before the final
results were known.
National Geographic said it will revise all its new maps
and globes with the new elevation.
New Technology, New Accuracy
?It is clearly the most authoritative and thoroughly
executed measurement of the highest point on the Earth?s
surface,? Allen Carroll, the society?s chief cartographer,
said.
The previous height ? 29,028 feet ? was determined
in 1954 by averaging altitude measurements taken from a
dozen different observation points around the mountain.
The study also found that Mount Everest is moving
steadily northeast at a rate of 2.4 inches a year because of
the geological fault system that slowly pushes India under
Nepal and China, creating the Himalayas, Washburn said.
?At this moment, six months later, Mount Everest may
already be a trifle higher, as well as slightly northeast of
the position that it occupied early in May,? he said.
The expedition is part of Washburn?s ongoing work to
accurately measure Everest. The Lexington, Mass.,
cartographer and his wife, Barbara, produced in 1988 the
most detailed map of Everest ever made.
Miniaturization a Key Reason
The expedition would have been impossible without
recent technical advances that shrank GPS units that once
weighed 50 pounds to a handheld size.
Everest has recently gained increasing infamy following
a rash of deaths that a sent chill through the climbing
community. Eight mountaineers died on the peak on May
10, 1996, alone, a tragedy described in the best-selling
book ?Into Thin Air? by Jon Krakauer.
But people keep climbing, and now the magic altitude
is seven feet higher.
?It?s a big deal when you change the height of the
highest peak in the world,? said Crouse.
On May 5, after collecting the altitude data, Crouse
had one more mission before leaving the summit.
His oxygen mask removed, exposing his face to the
Everest air, a balmy 12 degrees below zero, Crouse took
out a satellite telephone and dialed a number in Colorado.
After trying to connect for 20 minutes, a sleepy voice
answered.
Crouse said hello to his mother, telling her he was fine
and how high up he was ? higher than anyone knew |
