Mountaineers who have always taken pride in climbing the 8,848 m Mount Everest could be disappointed with manifestations of a recent research. A latest study defies earlier dimensions of the world’s highest peak, the Mount Everest, stating that the mountain measured 29,017ft or 8,844m above sea level, rather than the previously calculated 8,848.13 meters.

A new survey carried out by a dedicated team of 50 Chinese scientists, cartographers and mountaineers put Mount Everest’s height at 8,844m above sea level that was as much as 3.7 metres lower than measurements reckoned 30 years back, by Chinese experts themselves.

The declaration of the Everest’s peak by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping ushered in a new development in the 150 year old quest of knowing the height of the world’s highest mountain. It will certainly make a ‘mountain’ of a difference to a variety of issues and places, for if these new figures receive approval internationally, all schools, libraries and institutions will need to have new sets of atlases and maps of the world with the altered or reprinted altitude of the Mount Everest.

While Chinese explorers did expect their ‘Mount Qomolangma’, i.e. the Tibetan name of Everest in China, to measure a tad shorter than was being thought earlier, it did not in the least anticipate such a huge difference. They clarified that the peak had not contracted or shrunk, but the melting glaciers and ice around Everest could have lead to its reduced height.

Spokesperson for the Bureau of Surveying, Chen Bangzhu, explained, “We can’t conclude that Qomolangma is shorter. Actually the Qomolangma region is a place where the earth’s crust is moving, but the new measurement that we have announced is based on the height of the peak’s rock surface.” He added that the new research was “the most detailed and precise among all previous surveys domestically and internationally” so far.

The survey was conducted using highly advanced equipment like ice and snow radar altimeters.

Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Kang Shichang concluded from the new figures that they proved the underestimation of the ‘thickness of the ice’ on the Everest by former Chinese experts in 1975.

Meanwhile, the Sinomaps Press that is China’s equivalent of Ordnance Survey notified that it would reprint next year’s maps of China as well as the world with the Everest’s newfound altitude.