The high one isn't quite so high
13/09/13 05:33
Our attention was rightly focused on memories of a tragic day on September 11, so many may have missed a news conference that was held on that day in Alaska. Alaska lieutenant governor Mead Treadwell announced that Mount McKinley is 20,237 feet tall. That comes as a shock to those who have climbed to the summit and those who plan to one day do so. Since 1952 when the elevation of the mountain was measured using photogrammetry, the official height of McKinley has been listed as 20,320.
My first reaction was, “They’ve got some explaining to do in Alaska. You don’t just lose 83 feet of altitude and pretend it didn’t happen.”
The lieutenant governor says that the change in official records was the result of the Statewide Digital Mapping initiative in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey used more accurate techniques to determine the height of the mountain. A survey in 2012 used Intereferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar. If you ask me, all of this technological mumbo-jumbo doesn’t account for the fact that they decided to make their announcement on September 11. They didn’t want to make headlines and timed the announcement to garner as little press as possible. Heck, they didn’t even use the governor to make the announcement.
Of course all of this is said tongue in cheek. I have no doubt that there are now more accurate ways to measure the height of a mountain. And it isn’t hard to see how a mistake of 83 feet could have been made on a mountain that is shrouded in clouds more days than it is clear, that stands higher than the service ceiling of many of the airplanes that fly around it, where the winds buffet and make the air rough and instruments difficult to read to the nearest foot.
After all, even if the mountain were shrinking, there’d be a little over 99.6% of the thing left.
The Koyuk call the mountain Denali, which simply means “The High One.” As far as we know George Vancouver was the first non-indigenous visitor to see the mountain. He arrived in 1794. Europeans usually want to “conquer” high places by climbing, but it wasn’t until June of 1913 that an ascent of the mountain was verified. Earlier claims to have summited the mountain proved to be false. In 1951 Bradford Washington was the first to use the West Buttress route now considered to be the safest way to climb the mountain. These days all summer long there is a permanent base camp at 7,200 feet on the Kahiltna Glacier. Airplanes shuttle climbers and day tourists to the base camp whenever the weather is clear. From there, you walk. There is significant technical climbing involved in reaching the summit. A guided climb of the West Buttress route will run a little above $7,000 per climber. A little over half of those who attempt make it to the top.
I really don’t want to climb the mountain, though I would like to see it. If I were in Alaska and had the money, I’d love to fly around the mountain and perhaps even land on the glacier to experience a bit of base camp life. But I know that if I were in Alaska, the odds are that the mountain would be shrouded in clouds and the best I would be able to do would be to catch a short glimpse of the massive collection of peaks.
Now that it is 83 feet shorter than it used to be, I’d probably be looking too high in the sky when the clouds did part.
Mountains play an important role in the stories of people. The people of our faith, however, come from a place where things aren’t really all that high. There is some discussion about the location of the Biblical Mount Sinai, but the tallest point on the Sinai Peninsula is only 8668 feet above sea level. The territory of the Bible is sort of like the Black Hills and Badlands combined. Of course we don’t have any seas, but theirs aren’t as big as you might imagine. The Sea of Galilee isn’t exactly Lake Superior. Here in the hills the highest point is 7244 feet above sea level. Whether or not the observatory at the top of Harney Peak is tall depends on your perspective. If you compare it to the Rocky Mountains with plenty of peaks above tree line and lots of peaks above 14,000 feet, it isn’t exactly a mountain. On the other hand it is the tallest point west of the Rocky Mountains on the North American continent, making it higher than the Black Mountains, the Great Smoky Mountains, the Appalachians and other places. New Hampshire’s White Mountains are only 6288 at their highest point. Mt. Katahdin in Maine is only 5268. When you are standing on top of Harney Peak and looking east, it is pretty much all downhill from here.
But even the massive 14,000 peaks of Colorado are short when compared to Mt. McKinley. If we had a mountain that could afford to lose 83 feet, McKinley is probably the best candidate on the continent.
There have been times in our history when people believed that God preferred higher elevations. Moses went up on the mountain to talk to God. Most of the plains tribes sought out mountains for vision quests. Going into the mountains or climbing peaks has long been seen not only as a physical quest, but also a spiritual journey for many generations. Even though we know that God is not limited to any particular altitude, we still can experience closeness with the Creator when traveling in the mountains.
I expect that a view of Mount McKinley is a glimpse of glory. It is an experience that I someday will enjoy very much if the opportunity presents itself. I enjoy looking at pictures of the mountain and maps of the various climbing routes. I can live with the High One being 83 feet shorter.
The problem is with the math. I’ll never remember 20,237. There is a symmetry to 20,320 that made the number easy to memorize. Now I have to take 20,320 and subtract 83 to get the real height. On the other hand, I figure that if I’m within a hundred feet, that’s pretty good.