KATHMANDU: The highest point on Earth got a bit higher on Tuesday as China and Nepal finally agreed on a precise elevation for Mount Everest after years of debate.

The agreed height of 8,848.86 metres (29,031 feet) — unveiled at a news conference in Kathmandu — was 86 centimetres (2.8 feet) higher than the measurement previously recognised by Nepal, and more than four metres above China’s official figure.

This discrepancy was due to China measuring the rock base on the summit and not — as with the new reading — the covering of snow and ice on the peak. Everest straddles the border of Nepal and China. Employing trigonometry hundreds of miles away on the Indian plains, British colonial geographers first determined Everest’s height in 1856 at 8,840 meters (29,002 feet) above sea level.

After Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa famously first reached the summit of Everest on May 29, 1953, an Indian survey readjusted the altitude to 8,848 meters (29,028 feet).

That measurement was widely accepted, with the number appealing not only to ambitious mountaineers but also inspiring names for adventure clothing lines, restaurants and even a vodka brand. In 1999 the US National Geographic Society concluded the world’s highest point was 8,850 meters (29,035 feet), but Nepal never officially recognised this -- although it is widely quoted.

China meanwhile conducted several surveys of its own, and in 2005 came up with a measurement of 8,844.43 metres (29,015 feet).

The provoked a row with Nepal, which was only resolved in 2010 when Kathmandu and Beijing agreed that their measurements referred to different things — one to the height of Everest’s rock and the other to the height of its snowcap.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2020