Nepal will remeasure Mount Everest

July 21, 2011|Associated Press

KATMANDU, Nepal - Nepal has ordered a new measurement of Mount Everest to determine exactly how high the world’s highest mountain is.

The Himalayan country has continued to recognize the decades-old measurement of 29,028 feet, though Western climbers and China have made new claims.

The government decided last week to take the new measurement, Land Reforms Ministry spokesman Gopal Giri said yesterday. The plans are being formed this week, and the work will take two years.

It will entail placing a device on the peak that will measure the height using satellite technology, he said.

An American expedition in 1999 said it used GPS satellites to determine the peak to be 29,035 feet.

China, which contains Everest’s northern slopes, says the peak is 29,008 feet high.