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Kathmandu and Beijing had differed over its exact height but
after each sent an expedition of surveyors to the summit they
have agreed that the official height is 8,848.86 metres
(29,031.69 feet), a bit more than their previous calculations.
Everest is an "eternal symbol of ... friendship between Nepal
and China," said Nepali Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali,
announcing the findings of their surveys on a video call with
his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
Nepal had never previously measured the height of Mount Everest
on its own but had used the 8,848 metres (29,028 feet) estimate
made by the Survey of India in 1954 that includes snow.
A Chinese measurement in 2005 determined that the rock height of
the summit was 8,844.43 metres (29,017 feet), about 3.7 metres
(11 feet) less than the 1954 estimate.
Mountaineers had suggested a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015
which killed nearly 9,000 people in Nepal may have altered the
height of Everest.
Nepal, which is home to another seven of the world's 14 highest
peaks, sent its first team of surveyors in May last year to
measure Everest. Chinese surveyors then climbed the peak in
spring this year, when the mountain was closed by both countries
for other climbers due to the coronavirus pandemic.
EARTHQUAKE
Damodar Dhakal, spokesman for Nepal’s Department of Survey, said
the Nepali surveyors had used the Global Navigation Satellite
System to get "the precise height" of the giant peak.
Garrett Madison of the U.S.-based Madison Mountaineering company
said he was excited about climbing the "new heights" on Mount
Everest next year.
"Surely some new records for climbing the 'highest Everest' will
happen in 2021," the 42-year-old ten times Everest summiteer
told Reuters in a text message. "Hopefully I get Everest summit
#11 in 2021!"
Many Western climbers use the slightly greater height of 8,850
metres (29,035 feet) determined in 1999 by the National
Geographic Society and Boston's Museum of Science, in a survey
that used satellite-based technology to measure the peak.
The 2015 earthquake, which occurred during peak climbing season,
triggered massive avalanches that killed 18 people at the base,
halting the season's mountaineering activities.
The following year, climbers who scaled the summit said an
Everest landmark, Hillary Step – a 13 metre (40 feet)
near-vertical rock formation below the summit - had collapsed
from the impact of Nepal's worst earthquake ever recorded.
Everest has been climbed 10,184 times by 5,789 people from both
sides since it was first scaled by New Zealander Sir Edmund
Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953, according to the
Himalayan Database, which maintains records on climbs.
At least 311 people have died on its slopes.
(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Alasdair Pal and Gareth
Jones)
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