Nepal to measure Everest height

NEPAL

Nepal has started re-measuring the Mount Everest to check if the height of the world's tallest peak is altered by a powerful 2015 earthquake in the country.

Head of the Nepalese Survey Department, Ganesh Prasad Bhatta said a team of experts have begun refining the methodology for the new survey, which is expected to take two years to complete.

The official Everest height, which forms part of the Himalayan ridge, on the China-Nepal border, is 8,848 meters and was first measured by India in 1954.

Over the years several expeditions have re-measured the summit but the 1954 figures are commonly accepted. In April 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Nepal destroyed part of the country and triggered an avalanche that killed 18 people at Everest base camp. Since then some experts believe that it could have affected the height of the mountain. In May there was a debate among experts on the so-called Hillary Pass, a rock en route to the summit, which according to an experienced British climber would have sunk, something local guides deny.

"It is true that there is concern about the height of Everest after the April 2015 earthquake but it is not the only reason to re-measure it," Bhatta said.

Six years ago Nepal already wanted to measure Everest after a diplomatic controversy with China, which then claimed that the summit was four meters lower than the official height, although the project finally did not thrive.

In May of 1999 a US team added two meters to Everest height using GPS technology, a measure that since then the American organization National Geographic but that is not commonly accepted