Mount Hood Gains Or Loses In Latest Height Measurement

PORTLAND - Just how high is Oregon's highest mountain?

On Wednesday, after 10 days of computer calculations, a group of surveyors said the elevation of Mount Hood is 11,240 feet.

That's a little higher - or a little lower - than was thought previously.

For nearly 150 years, scientists, surveyors, mountaineers and mapmakers have argued about the exact elevation of the mountain that shimmers on the east Portland skyline.

Listings vary from a low of 11,225 feet to a high of 11,253 feet. The Rand McNally map of Oregon lists 11,235 feet and 11,239 feet - on the same map. The official state map of Oregon lists the height as 11,235 feet.

On Aug. 28, a group from W&H Pacific, an engineering and surveying company based in Portland, surveyed the mountain 46 miles east of Portland in hopes of settling the issue.

They carried a 16-pound Trimble Navigational receiver and antenna to the top and based their calculations on global positioning systems, designed to be accurate within 1 1/4 inch.

Surveyor Doyle Anderson said he'll file a record of the survey with Clackamas County.

Keith Mischke, executive assistant for the Mazamas, a mountaineering club formed on the summit of Mount Hood in 1894, said the new figure sounded accurate to him.

"It just keeps growing," he said. "Each year I get older, the mountains get higher."