What is the height of Everest?

The big worry for mountaineers today – what is the height of Mount Everest?

There is anxiety that after the massive earthquake in the Everest region two years ago, could have shaved off a meter from the tallest peak of the world. And to cull all this talk, the Indian Government plans to measure the height of Mount Everest for a second time.

A combination of GPS measurement and triangulation is required to measure the exact height of the mountain. A 30-strong team would take about a month to make its observations and another 15 days to compute and declare its data.

Satellite data has indicated the quake impact reduced the height of the peak. Scientists have said that the height of a swathe of the Himalayas dropped by around one metre shortly after the 7.8 magnitude Nepal earthquake.

The height that we have now, officially is 8,848m (29,028ft) and this came from an Indian survey 62 years ago.