Elevation
The 5,359 m (17,582 ft) elevation measure was taken from a modern GPS survey by a team of researchers. It accurately matches SRTM data, ASTER GDEM data and Russian topographic mapping, and it is broadly consistent with several other independent travellers' GPS reports and an article by Bonington.
Several of these sources contain assertions by local people who claim that the 5,602 m (18,380 feet) height claimed by the summit signs has been inflated for the purpose of record breaking. The even higher elevation of 5,682 m (18,640 feet) that has been claimed by Guinness World Records and the National Geographic Society is not supported by any evidence and may be rooted in a copying error from 5,602 m.
Read more about this topic: Khardung La
Famous quotes containing the word elevation:
“The stern hand of fate has scourged us to an elevation where we can see the great everlasting things which matter for a nation—the great peaks we had forgotten, of Honour, Duty, Patriotism, and, clad in glittering white, the great pinnacle of Sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven.”
—David Lloyd George (1863–1945)
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—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
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—Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)