The elevation game

I get fired up for what sounds like a massive training ride Sunday. My buddy tells me he wants to climb Big cottonwood canyon and Suncrest, a total of 10,000 feet of climbing he says. Wow, 10,000 feet! That's a lot. I bring my Garmin eTrex Vista cause I like to see a bunch of useless stats; elevation being one of my favorites.

At the top of Big Cottonwood canyon we're registering around 4,500 feet of climbing from his house near I-15. I guess that makes sense, we may be 1/2 of the way through our day.

End of the day: 6553 feet on the GPS. Upload to MotionBased, a Garmin web site, it shows 8787 feet (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5575238). They have this blurb about barometric pressure elevation that may be more accurate than other sources, buuuut can also be less accurate, so they have this service that adjusts elevations based on database data for gps coordinates. This ride is now adjusted to 10,268 feet (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5575267). Now I have 3 significantly different numbers, which one is true?

Many times since I started riding with a GPS have people told me my elevation is wrong; their numbers differ significantly to mine. Very interesting.

I gotta say, this ride was great fun. 10,000 feet or not, it was a beautiful day with great company. Makes one feel they may actually enjoy the Death Ride.