Nepal measures Everest to settle height confusion

Nepal has begun a project to re-measure Mount Everest in an attempt to end confusion about the exact height of the world's tallest peak, a government spokesman in Kathmandu said Tuesday.

Everest, which straddles Nepal and China, is generally thought to stand at 8,848 metres (29,029 feet) after an Indian survey in 1954, but other more recent measurements have varied by several metres.

Gopal Giri, a spokesman with the Nepalese land reform and management ministry, told that during border talks between the two countries, the Chinese delegates often use their measurement of 8,844 metres.

"We have begun the measurement to clear this confusion. Now we have the technology and the resources, we can measure ourselves," Giri said. "This will be the first time the Nepal government has taken the mountain's height."

He said that the project's results would only be known in two years' time after reference points are set up on Everest and then global-positioning system satellites are used to calculate the precise measurement.

Last year, officials from both nations reached a compromise under which Nepal measured the height of Everest's snowcap at 8,848 metres and China measured the rock peak at 8,844 metres.

The first measurement of Everest was made in 1856. It was conquered in 1953 by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, and has since been climbed by more than 3,000 people. (AFP)

'Super Sherpa' scales Mount Everest for record 21st time

ATHMANDU: A 51-year-old Nepali mountaineer, nicknamed "Super Sherpa", climbed Mount Everest for a record 21st time on Wednesday, breaking his own record for the most summits of the world's highest mountain, hiking officials said.

Apa Sherpa, who lives in the United States, reached the 8,850-metre (29,035-foot) peak of the mountain along the Southeast Ridge route, pioneered by New Zealand's Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who were the first to reach the top of the world in 1953.

"It takes a lot of will power to do something as difficult and needing a lot of strength at very high altitude over and over and over again," climbing historian Elizabeth Hawley said. "It is really a remarkable achievement."

Apa, whose 21st ascent was dedicated to the impact of climate change, was accompanied by American Chris Shumate, Bruno Gremior of Switzerland and four other Sherpa climbers, Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of the Asian Trekking Agency, said.

Environmental activists say the Himalayan glaciers are rapidly shrinking due to climate change, threatening the lives of millions of people who depend on them for water.

Apa's Eco Everest Expedition team is made from climbers from different countries that set out to pick about five tonnes of decades-old old garbage - discarded oxygen cylinders, gas canisters, torn tents, ropes and plastic dumped by climbers on the mountain's slopes in the past.

"This expedition is focussed on climbing in an eco-sensitive manner to keep Everest clean and collect garbage, debris and waste left by past expedition groups," team leader Dawa Steven Sherpa said.

Apa first climbed the summit of Everest in 1990. He was born in Solukhumbhu district, home to Everest, but now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Hundreds of climbers are on Everest during the current March-May climbing season to try to reach the top from the Nepali and Tibetan sides of the mountain.

More than 3,100 climbers have made at least 5,100 ascents of Mount Everest since Hillary and Norgay. (Reuters)