Been reading the forum for many years, so how's this topic for a first post? Search function did not turn up much.

Last year I developed a permanent photographic display that is currently in front of the big window facing Mt Whitney in the Eastern Sierra Visitor Center in Lone Pine. The USFS and NPS requested that I use an elevation of 14,494 ft. on the picture, which I did. I am also working on a nine foot panorama that will be behind the information counter.

I am now working on some other pictures and knowing that books, maps, and guides vary in their elevation, I did a little research. There are two National Geodetic Survey data sheets dated 8.12.4, each for a different Designation (location), one has an elevation of 14,505, and this has an elevation of 14,508.
https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=GT1810

After some additional reading a geodetic surveyor on my staff said that both 14,505 and 14,508 are valid for their locations and both use the latest datum and calculations. But if you want the highest, you would obviously use 14,508.

Hiking guides, climbing guides, and Wikipedia are not primary sources of data, but the National Geodetic Survey is. I know that another survey, by a different surveyor, even at the same Designation, could result in a different elevation. But until then, the latest NGS elevation is 14,508, so... why the continued controversy on the elevation of Mt Whitney?







Last edited by skiroc; 03/14/18 07:09 AM.