Nepal should make detailed profiles of all peaks above 6,000m to promote tourism and tackle the issues of climate change Mount Sagarmatha, also known as Mount Everest and Chomolungma, has now become a bit taller than earlier thought. It has become taller by 86 centimeters or about three feet. Now its official height is 8,848.86 m from the mean sea level. Till date, its height was considered to be 8,848 m although various countries and universities had also measured its height with varied elevations. The official height of the world’s tallest peak was announced at a virtual conferencing by Nepal and China on Tuesday, 14 months after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s two-day official visit to Nepal. During the visit, both the countries had agreed to ‘jointly announce’ the height of the peak. But they could not measure it jointly due to the spread of the coronavirus that forced the closure of the mountain from both the sides. A Nepali team had already reached the top of the peak during spring before the pandemic while the Chinese side climbed up there in the midst of the pandemic. Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Gyawali and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, announced its height through teleconferencing, putting the confusion shrouding its height to rest. The Nepali team, led by officials from the Department of Survey, had spent 41 days measuring its height from different points, including the one from Siraha, where a data station was set up.