Nepal and China to reveal new height of Mount Everest after COVID pandemic delay

After a gap of 10 years, China and Nepal have teamed up to measure the height of the world’s highest mountain that lies on the border of the two countries. As per a report by The Guardian, both countries had signed a memorandum back in 2019 which states that they must jointly reveal the new height of Mt. Everest. The announcement of their findings was reportedly delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

New height to be revealed jointly

According to reports, both countries have historically disagreed on the height of the mountain. However, in 2010, they decided to settle their dispute. Thus, Nepal sent its own team to the summit back in 2019, while Chine sent its team to the summit in May this year. Both countries have accepted the claims of the other with China accepting Nepal’s claim that that snow height of the mountain is 8,848 metres while Nepal recognized that the rock height of the mountain is 8,844.43 metres. The measurements of Mt Everest till now have only been conducted by US, European or Indian surveyors.

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The Guardian, while quoting a local Nepali media house, stated that the measurement of the world’s tallest mountain that lies on its border is a matter of pride for Nepal, but the it is also a major undertaking with the world eagerly awaiting the result. Mt Everest's height was first recorded back in 1856 by the Great Trigonometric Survey (GTS) of India. The height of the mountain has varied over the decades depending on several factors such as the surveyor, point from which the height is measured if the rock height or the snow height is taken as the highest point.

Mount Everest summit success rates doubled

According to a new study, the success rate of climbing the world's tallest peak Mount Everest has doubled in the last three decades. However, the death rate for climbers remained unchanged at around 1 per cent since 1990. The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE which analysed the success and death rates for all first-time climbers who were allowed to climb the peak during the period of 2006 to 2019. The researchers found that the number of climbers on Mount Everest has rapidly increased in recent years. 

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