Mt Everest reaches new heights with a final agreement
EVEREST has a new official height after China and Nepal jointly agreed to end a disagreement over the issue.
The world’s tallest mountain is now deemed to be 29,031.7ft, slightly more than Nepal’s previous measurement and 13ft more than China’s.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and his Nepalese counterpart, Pradeep Gyawali, simultaneously hit buttons during a virtual news conference and the new height flashed up on a screen.
Nepal Mountaineering Association president Santa Bir Lama declared: ‘This is a milestone in mountaineering history and now the world will have one official number.’
Surveyors from Nepal scaled Everest in 2019 and took measurements that included the depth of snow on the summit.
China’s president Xi Jinping visited Nepal later that year and the two
TRIBUTES have been paid to Doug Scott – the first Englishman to conquer Everest – after his death aged 79. The mountaineer (pictured with his first wife Jan) tackled the south-west face in 1975. Two years later, he broke his legs while abseiling down another Himalayan peak, The Ogre, and crawled back to base camp. He was made a CBE in 1994, founded the Community Action Nepal charity, and raised funds in the Covid lockdown by climbing his stairs. Climber Kenton Cool said he was ‘possibly the greatest mountaineer of his generation’.
countries decided they should agree on the height of the mountain, which straddles their border.
The final verdict was reached after a Chinese team took their own readings.