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China and Nepal have jointly announced a new official height for Mount Everest, ending a disagreement between the two nations.
The new height of the world’s highest peak is 8,848.86 meters, which is slightly higher than the previous measurement for Nepal and about 4 meters higher than that of China.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Nepalese counterpart Pradeep Gyawali simultaneously pressed buttons during a virtual conference and the new height flashed on the screen.
The height of Everest, which is located on the China-Nepal border, was agreed after surveyors from Nepal scaled the peak in 2019 and a Chinese team did the same in 2020.
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There was debate over the actual height of the peak and concerns that it might have been lowered after a major earthquake in 2015. The earthquake killed 9,000 people, damaged around 1 million structures in Nepal, and triggered an avalanche on Everest that killed 19 people at the base camp.
Tashi Tsering / AP
Members of a Chinese surveying team head to the top of Mount Everest, also known locally as Mount Qomolangma.
There was no doubt that Everest would remain the highest peak because the second highest, Mount K2, is only 8611 m high.
The height of Everest was first determined by a British team around 1856 as 8842 m.
But the most accepted height has been 8848m, which was determined by the Survey of India in 1954.
In 1999, a team from the National Geographic Society using GPS technology reached an altitude of 8850 m. A Chinese team in 2005 said it was 8844.43 m because it did not include snow cover.
A team of climbers and surveyors from the Nepalese government climbed Everest in May 2019 and installed GPS and satellite equipment to measure the peak and depth of the snow at the summit.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Nepal later that year and the leaders of the two countries decided they should agree on a height.
An inspection team from China then took measurements in spring 2020, while all other expeditions were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Tashi Tsering / AP
A member of a Chinese surveying team installs a surveying team on top of Mount Everest.
The Nepalese climbing community welcomed the end of the confusion over the height of the mountain.
“This is a milestone in the history of mountaineering that will finally end the debate about height and now the world will have a number,” said Santa Bir Lama, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.
The new official Chinese agency Xinhua quoted Xi as saying that the two sides are committed to jointly protecting the environment around Everest and cooperating in scientific research.
For China, the announcement seemed to have as much to do with politics as it did with geography. China has brought Nepal closer and closer to its orbit with investments in its economy and the construction of roads, dams, airports and other infrastructure in the impoverished nation.
That appears to serve China’s interests in reducing the influence of rival India, with which it shares a disputed border, and Nepal’s role as a destination for Tibetan refugees.
The Xinhua report said nothing on the technical aspects, but strongly emphasized the geopolitical weight of the joint announcement.
China and Nepal will establish an “even closer community of a shared future to enrich the countries and their peoples,” Xinhua quoted Xi as saying.
