Nepal in new bid to finally settle Mount Everest height

Although China had argued about how the peak's height should be measured, the countries agreed Nepal's figure of 8,848m (29,029ft) in 2010.

The dispute has never seemed fully settled, however, and shifting geology in the region could also add confusion.

Nepal is now seeking international help to support a new, official measurement.

With outside funding, expertise and equipment, it hopes to complete the job and finally, quantitatively settle the matter within the next couple of years.

"Since we lack the capacity to do the job on our own, we are preparing a project plan with the request for donors and we will soon be sending them out," Krishna Raj BC, director general of Nepal's Survey Department, told BBC News.

He said the project was designed three years ago, but much remains to be done.

"Funding and technology have been the main constraints. We don't have, for instance, the equipment that works in a place with -45C temperature," he said.

"We basically need data from gravity instruments, levelling points and the global positioning system (GPS) to get a complete picture.

"For all these technologies to work, first there has to be infrastructure in places like the Everest base camp, and then we need to mobilise Sherpas up and down the mountain with someone who can handle all those technologies.

"And then finally, the data will have to be processed in such a way that it will be acceptable to the international scientific community."

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