Chinese surveyors reach summit of Mount Everest to remeasure its height
- Eight-member team may be the only people to get to the top this year after climbing season was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic
- They are conducting a comprehensive scientific survey of the mountain, which may have been shrunk by the 2015 earthquake in Nepal
Having been delayed twice this month due to bad weather, the eight-member team set off from a camp at 8,300 metres (27,230 feet) at around 2.10am on Wednesday, reaching the peak after nearly nine hours, state media reported.
They stayed at the summit for a record 2½ hours while they put up a survey marker, installed a global navigation satellite system receiver, and used a snow-depth radar to collect data.
It is part of a comprehensive scientific survey of the mountain to determine its current height, and it is expected to take two to three months for researchers to collect, process and analyse the data.
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China sends surveyors to top of Mount Everest in a bid to measure the world’s tallest mountain
Dang Yamin, director of the Institute of Geodesy and Geodynamics at the Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping, said a huge earthquake five years ago may have changed the mountain’s height.