It turns out that Mount McKinley is actually 83 feet shorter than once believed.
Due to new mapping technology, it was found that the tallest mountain in North America is not 20,320 feet but 20,237 feet instead. Alaska's lieutenant governor announced the change on Wednesday, Newsminer.com reports.
"That's 83 feet shorter than we thought," Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell said in a statement. Treadwell announced the change at a symposium of the International Map Collectors' Society in Anchorage.
The mountain, also known as Denali, had been measured at 20,320 feet since 1952. The mountain was previously measured using photogrammetry technology.
The latest height was determined last year with a radar mapping system deployed by the Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey. This project will help to create 11,000 new maps of Alaska by 2016.
Despite finding out that the mountain is actually shorter than believes, Alaskans who have climbed it are unfazed by the change as they say its still a challenge.
"It's hard to climb, and the air is just as thin," mountaineer Stan Justice told the Fairbanks News Miner.
"It's still high, it's still hard, it's still cold," climber Nick Parker told the Anchorage Daily News. "As long as it's higher than Texas, I don't care."
And still hundreds of feet ahead of Canada. That's where North America's second-tallest peak, Mount Logan at 19,551 feet, sits.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
