Exact Altitude of Baker Upper Lot?

do any of you guys know an accurate altitude for the SE corner of the upper parking lot at mt baker? i would like to use that spot to calibrate my alt-watch.

and while we are on the topic, does anyone have any experience with how much the barometric pressure throws off the alt reading? the manual says something like "might make the reading wrong" --not very clear....

thanks.

Barometric pressure is used to determine your altitude while going up or down in most watches.  If a front moves in while you are on your tour your watch will not be read the same elevation at your car when you left it.  It all depends on how strong the front is.  Usually I have found that during a high pressure system my watch doesn’t change much if any but it can very as much as 600ft or more during low pressure systems.

Hope this helps.

Sorry don't know the exact elevation of the parking lot.

When I have noticed mine was off it was typically off by 100 to 200 in either way. Although I remember watching it out of curiousity when I knew a large system was coming in and it was off by 500 or so that time. I think the barometer just showed one last dot in the lower right hand quadrant of the grid with a little skull and crossbones that day.

great stuff Larry, thanks. I wish the manual said all of that because that is what you really need to know with one of these. I figured the parking lot was 42-something.

i live at about 100 above see level, and walk my dog daily to a spot about 15 feet above SL. i have been noticing that it has read negative altitudes a few times, so it is definitely and approximating tool.

it seems like a tool like this wont be very useful somewhere where you are lapping within a 2000 vf window, like most places i visit here in the cascades. it would probably be of more use somewhere like tahoe where you are doing a single run of 5000+ vf.