Nepal survey to remeasure Mount Everest begins

    Published on: 23rd Sep, 2017

    Nepal has begun remeasuring Mount Everest to check if the height of the world’s tallest peak was altered by a powerful earthquake that struck the nation in 2015, the government said Friday.

    The official height of Mount Everest — which lies in the Himalayan range, straddling the border between Nepal and China — is 8,848 metres (29,029 feet), first recorded by an Indian survey in 1954.

    Mt. Everest
    Mt. Everest



    Numerous other teams have measured the peak, although the 1954 height remains the widely accepted figure.

    ‘Nepal has never measured Everest on its own although the world’s highest peak lies in its territory.

    So we want to prove to our people that Nepal is capable of measuring Everest,’ Ganesh Prasad Bhatta, head of the government’s survey department, told AFP.

    A team of Nepali and foreign experts have begun refining the methodology for the new survey, which is expected to take two years, Bhatta said.

    A team of Sherpas will take measuring equipment to the summit either in April, the beginning of the spring climbing season, or October, another period of good weather on Everest.

    In April 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Nepal, causing widespread devastation across the country and triggering an avalanche that killed 18 people at Everest’s base camp.

    Many have speculated that the quake altered the mountain.

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