The BBC has reported that a Welsh hill has been upgraded to a mountain after three walkers found its official measurement was too low.
Mynydd Graig Goch in Snowdonia was originally put at 1,998ft (609m), just short of the magic 2,000ft (609.6m) that qualifies as a mountain. But the walkers found its true height is six inches over 2,000ft (at 609.75m).
Using "state-of-the art" equipment supplied by Swiss firm Leica Geosystems, John Barnard, Myrddyn Phillips and Graham Jackson used satellite positioning to gauge the height of the hills in Snowdonia. Now it is hoped that Ordnance Survey will alter its maps after the discovery by the trio.
Their efforts have echoes of the 1995 film set in Wales which starred Hugh Grant as The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill, But Came Down A Mountain.
And it would seem people do become attached to certain measurements. When the National Geographic Society updated their beautiful map of Mount Everest at 1:50,000 to change the height from the old established 8,848m (29,029ft) to 8,850m (29,035ft), provided by NASA from satellite measurements, they were faced with a problem not often encountered by map makers. Customers – in Stanfords and elsewhere worldwide – refused to buy the new map and demanded the return of the earlier edition. So, the maps which were about to be shredded, were put back on sale restoring the world’s higher peak to its traditional 8,848m – that’s what it was when it was first climbed and that’s what, it seems, map lovers wanted.
However, the new measurement has become widely accepted and you can now buy the wholly accurate NGS map of Everest – at 8,850m.
Author: Rachel Ricks and Malgorzata Ross
Date: 23 October 2008
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