As we continue our Everest climb to raise money for Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People and LOROS, it was with a very tentative mouse click that I chose to read an article informing me that Nepal and China have agreed on Mount Everest’s height.

Was our progress about to be hampered by a growth in the mountain?

Or maybe it had shrunk and we could have a day off?

But all is well, both countries have decided to agree with The Phoenix Partners that Everest is 8848 meters tall. Phew. It is of course an interesting debate, how do you measure a mountain? It isn’t like measuring for curtains. You can’t send your spouse up a ladder with a tape measure only for them to complain that you’re not holding your end properly and it will be your fault when they’re sitting in a draft. Or is it? The height debate has been going on since 1856 and actually seems to hinge on a very similar argument.

But never mind our calculations are correct and we shall climb onwards and upwards in blissful ignorance of the US National Geographic Society who insist that it is 8850 meters.

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