How Tall Is Mount Everest? For Nepal, It’s a Touchy Question.<br />Folklore has it that when Mr. Sikdar finished calculating his findings in 1852, he made a beeline for the office of a superior stationed in the foothills of the Himalayas and announced<br />that he had "discovered the highest mountain in the world." In 1856, the height of Peak XV was recorded at 29,002 feet, a number remarkably close to the height recognized by climbing bodies today.<br />Ang Tshering Sherpa, the former head of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said China applied pressure on the Nepal’s government<br />and an international climbing body to recognize 29,017 feet, the measurement from the rock base, as the mountain’s new height.<br />" Mr. Sherpa said. that China changed its own findings last year after the number of<br />climbers summiting Mount Everest from the northern side significantly decreased,<br />In 1999, a measurement by American scientists pushed the peak a little higher, saying the mountain reached 29,035 feet.<br />But Nepal held its ground, and China recently backed down, Mr. Sherpa said, apparently<br />in response to a drop in climbers tackling the mountain from the Tibet side.<br />In the mid-1950s, the height was recognized as about 29,029 feet, making it the world’s tallest mountain above sea level.
