The 2019 spring Everest climbing season has begun. To protect Everest’s ecology, mainland China will only allow 144 climbers this spring. The Tibet Mountaineering Association stated that every year, temporary eco-toilets are set up below 7,500 meters in the Everest climbing area to collect climbers’ waste and domestic garbage, which are then transported down the mountain for unified disposal. Additional temporary eco-toilets have also been installed at the North Col camp at 7,028 meters to ensure no litter is left behind. German climbers have given positive feedback, “The Chinese are very reliable business partners.”
As the main peak of the Himalayas and the world’s highest mountain, Everest has always drawn global attention regarding both ecological preservation and its exact height. Since 1852, when the British measured Everest’s height as 8,840 meters from India using geodetic methods and first declared it the world’s tallest peak, the monumental and challenging task of measuring Everest’s height has never stopped.
The World’s Tallest Peak Keeps Growing
Currently, the height of Everest recognized by Nepal is 8,848 meters, which is also the first figure that comes to many people’s minds. This number was re-measured by the Survey of India in 1954 based on the 1852 data.
The most recent measurement of Everest by mainland China was in 2005, when the announced height was 8,844.43 meters. This does not mean Everest has shrunk. As Chen Xianjun, a senior engineer from the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation who participated in the 2005 measurement, explained, the 1975 measurement was of the snow surface, while the 2005 figure was derived by subtracting the thickness of the snow and ice layers—measured by ground-penetrating radar—from the snow surface height, yielding the rock height of Everest.
In reality, factors such as advancements in measurement technology, the precision of snow and ice layer thickness measurements at the summit, and Everest’s own tectonic movements can all influence the results. Therefore, one cannot conclusively determine whether Everest is growing or shrinking based solely on measurement data; accurate judgments should be made through research by geoscience experts. Chen Xianjun noted that, overall, the Tibetan Plateau is rising at an average rate of 7 to 8 centimeters per year, and the current academic consensus is that Everest is still uplifting.
Recently, a team of four Nepali surveyors set out from Kathmandu to the South Base Camp of Mount Everest to conduct an independent measurement of the mountain’s height. According to information released by the Nepal Survey Department, the team will use a combination of traditional and modern techniques, including GPS, for the measurement.
Mid-April: Everest Clean-Up
Building on previous environmental efforts, this year Tibet Yarlung Zangbo Mountaineering Expedition Service Co., Ltd. will install additional temporary eco-toilets at the North Col camp at 7,028 meters to ensure no waste is left there. No temporary eco-toilets will be set up above 7,500 meters. Climbing waste will be transported back to Lhasa for processing, domestic garbage generated during the climb will be taken to a waste treatment plant, and human waste will be transported to local farmland as fertilizer.
The 2019 spring Everest clean-up campaign will still primarily involve the Everest High-Altitude Environmental Protection Team, composed of mainland Chinese mountaineering professionals and local farmers and herders. It is understood that three clean-up operations will be carried out on Everest this year: one after climbing teams enter the Everest Base Camp in mid-April, another after teams move into the Advance Camp, and a final clean-up after all teams have dismantled their camps.
Quick Facts: Measuring Everest’s Height
The first on-site measurement of Everest by mainland Chinese surveyors took place in 1966, when they measured the summit’s elevation from the north side for the first time. The Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Cryopedology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted stereophotogrammetry to produce a 1:25,000 topographic map of Everest.
The second measurement was a supplementary survey in 1968. Based on the analysis of the initial data, the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping of China conducted further observations of the Everest summit. The two measurements provided comprehensive data, and after indoor calculations and various corrections, the first elevation of Everest from the north side was determined.
In March 1975, the third measurement of Everest was carried out by mainland China. After collecting observational data at different times and completing field surveys, the elevation of Everest’s summit was calculated as 8,848.13 meters on a rigorous theoretical basis and subsequently announced to the world. (By Sun Yaizhang)