European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 7, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Northwestern railway an abandoned link id inc Rich Copper deposits farther up me Chitina River near Mccarthy. The land once had been a Arm. A place where Grain was grown Lor draft animals and Vega Lulua Piiru raised or Railroad and mind workers but land does t remain cleared for Long in Alaska in not tended constantly and an a most impenetrable Jungle of Willows ust inches april choked much of inc properly. A Long descried train station stood on the property and the Collinss quickly made it their Home. It was kind of like pioneering jewel Collins says. I d never been so tired never worked so hard never been so dirty and i loved the descendant of a Long line o Farmers in the to pm. Mo., area Cliff cleared enough land by hand Lor a Garden. The depot they turned Inlo a Homo Lacr was moved and several roams were added years of careful nursing of me Garden have made ii wildly product Job Laal year the Collinss harvested 700 pounds of carrots and 1,200 pounds of Polat ofis. Not id mention All the strawberries and Green vegetables and the rows of brilliantly hued violets. At list tha Collinson commuted by floatplane irom Cordova to Long Lake on weekends. Chill started Hying in 1953 and still does. A Vintage Piper pa-14, a single engine plane Buill in 194b, bobs at the Dock behind the House. The Collinss first came to Alaska in 1939, six years alter they were married. They planned to stay a year. Ii was seven years Belore they even took a vacation outside Alaska. Cliff was a commercial refrigeration Salesman in Idaho when seme friends who owned a Small Cannery invited him and his Wile to Cordova. He worked As a Salmon Fisherman until 194b when he decided to Call in quits after three exceptionally Good years. The Collinss bought a jewelry photography store which they ran or 15 years. When they sold it Cliff sold insurance Lor 10 years. But the lure of Long Lake already was overpowering. Since 1971, they have spent Summers a i the Lake and Winters in Cordova. It s a life of Comfort by Rural Alaska standards but with tha Patina of hard work Over the years the Collinss have taken on More and More time consuming projects. First there was the runway what started As a narrow rough 800-foot slash through Spruce and Cottonwood has grown to a 3,000-foot strip. So neat it looks like a Golf course Fairway. Clip s love outlying led to the unpaid Post of civil air patrol commander or the past 15 years Long Lake frequently becomes the Center of search operations or downed planes and missing people. The strip and adjacent fake also Are the focal Point of the social event of the year in the Mccarthy area the memorial Day Fly in breakfast. Liis year 75 air planes and More than 100 people showed up. Then there s the slate fish Weir the Collinss have helped maintain since 1974. Thousands of red Salmon Bailie almost 200 Miles up silly Rivers to spawn in the Crystal Waters of Long Lake. Cliff helps biologist tag fish and Lake scale samples. A few years ago the stale decided it did t have enough Money to maintain the Weir. Cliff does it for free. A fledgling ornithologist Cliff began banding Birds Lor the Federal government a Lew years Back. He s Buill houses Tor 53 Mosquito Ealing tree swallows in the past three years. When the Anchorage Audubon society spent a week camping on the Collinss Lawn in june its members counted More than 100 species of Birds. With the Sun edging behind one of the Wrangell s purple peaks the Collinss Survey their Domain with quiet satisfaction. About Lour years ago some people from a leading hotel Chain in Alaska i won t Lell you which one Oil ered me $822,000 for this place Cliff says wanted to turn it into a resort. I told them it was t Tor Sale at three times that. It s my grandhids1 land omber 7,1967 new Yolk twi Picolo the world s highest Peak tuns mountaineers like no other standing tall by John Noble Wilford new York times Verest is still King Olathe mountains. New and More thorough measurements by an italian expedition show thai contrary to calculations reported earlier this year mount Everest stands second to none among the peaks of the world. Its sum Mil was determined to be a Lolly 29,106 Leet above sea Lovel which is 840 feet higher than k-2, another Himalayan Peak thai is the closest rival cartographers and mountaineers both in the uni cd Stales and in other countries said the italian calculations seemed to Settle the Contro Kirsy Over the relative standing of Everest and k-2. The expedition was led by a respected scientist and Surveyor Cardilo Desio who had directed the first successful ascent of k-2 in 1954, Only a year after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made it to Tho lop of Everest As the crowning achieve Mon of mountaineering. The italian measurements were made in August with a combination of Iho Lales satellite surveying techniques and traditional land based triangulation methods. Tho results were announced in a report in october to Italy s National research Council. But larger questions Aboul the Topography and underlying geology of the Himalayas past and future remain to be answered. A More elaborate Long Lerm application of the same surveying techniques used by the italians is expected to give scientists a Betler understanding of the collision of deep crustal plates millions of years ago that created the world s greatest Mountain Range in the first place. Ii also should help scientists interpret the internal forces Al work today destabilizing the asian terrain Over thousands of Miles and causing the Himalayan peaks to Rise steadily Al a rats of two inches a year. Such a major Survey is being planned by a team of american goo physicists led by Roger Kilham a professor Al the University of Colorado Al Boulder and Peter Molnar. A professor at the Massachusetts inst Lule of technology they Are authorities on the role of the Earth s shilling crustal plates in the formation of mountains a request for funds to begin the Survey next Spring is being reviewed by the National science foundation another parly of american Mountain climbers and surveyors unaware that the italians had already done the work had planned to accompany the geophysical expedition Lor the specific purpose of re measuring the Heights of Everest and k-2. As a result of the italian findings. The explorers club of new York said that it was reconsidering its plan to sponsor the re measurement project. "1 really Don t think there s a controversy anymore said Andrew c. Harvard a new York lawyer and Mountain climber who is organizing the american Par by that the explores club had planned to sponsor. He said Iho locus of his parly s yield work would probably be changed to concentrate on a Rofi cd Survey of Everest aimed Al confirming the italian calculations and supporting the american go physicists and so products a Yocun la y film on modern map making Bra lord Washbum a retired director of the Boston museum of science and an expert in mapping mount ans. Said the controversy would seem to be settled Tho Way we always thought it would be settled in favor of Tho italian team had rushed to the Himalayas in response to an announcement last March by or. George Walle Slem. A professor of astronomy Al the University of Washington in Seattle who participated in a Mountain climbing expedition at k-2 last year. Wall Ersleen look along a 75-Pound radio receiver designed to Monitor the signals from a passing Navy Nav Galon satellite. The signals enabled him to determine the precise Longitude latitude and Elevation of the parly s Bass Camp the surveyors next used laser distance measuring instrument to establish two known base lines then applying Standard triangulation techniques in observations irom Iho base Camp to the k-2 Summit As the Apex of a Triangle he obtained an indirect measurement of lha Mountain s height according to Wallerstein the new data showed k-2 to be 29.061 Leet above sea level compared with the 28250 feet of earlier measurements. Since the Long recognized Elevation for Everest was 29,028 feet k-2 now appeared to Fop Everest by 36 feet. Bui the batteries for his satellite radio receiver went dead before Walter Slein could repeat the measurements to Check for discrepancies and no attempt was made to submit Everest to the same Type of Survey he himself cautioned that in was premature to be calling k-2 the world s highest Mountain the announcement Al off a Tumuli among Mountain climbers and mapmakers. Suddenly in began to seem thai people had been scaling the wrong Peak Tor the a toy of standing on top of the work. One indignant Veteran of Everest expeditions. Charles Warren of England wrote the times of London what a blow this would be to the whole romantic history of mountaineering. How sad it would be to sae the eponymous Everest replaced by the Barial name of k-2 As Iho highest Mountain on Everest which rises irom Nepal at the Vinese Border is known in local tradition As Chomo Lunga o goddess Mother of the land but was first designated Peak Xiv by British surveyors alter it was Lound in 16s2 to be the world s highest Peak it was named for sir George Everest a British director of the great trigonometric Al Survey of India m the 19lh Century the stars and stripes Page 15
