Team returns from Mount McKinley elevation survey climb

July 17, 2015

Photo by Tom Heinrichs, UAF Geophysical Institute.. Rhett Foster from CompassData pauses on a ridge leading to the 17,000 foot base camp.

A team of four climbers has recently returned from the highest point in North America with new survey data to determine a more precise height of the mountain’s summit.

The last official survey of Mount McKinley was in 1953, when the peak's elevation was recorded at 20,320 feet. Advances in GPS technologies and better gravity data have improved greatly since then, and will augment new elevation data in Alaska from the 3D Elevation Program.

The U.S. Geological Survey, along with UAF and NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey, are the primary partners supporting the survey of Mount McKinley’s summit. The survey party was composed of three mountaineers from CompassData and Tom Heinrichs, a scientist from UAF’s Geophysical Institute.

The team began its ascent June 16 and safely returned to its starting point ahead of schedule.

The data will be analyzed by Jeff Freymueller, a GI professor, as well as by CompassData. The new elevation data should be announced in late August.