Nepalese scorn Everest threat

Daniel Lak in Kathmandu

A suggestion that Mount Everest may not after all be the highest point on earth has caused scorn, derision and some nervousness in Nepal, where most of Everest lies.

K2, on the border between Pakistan's disputed Northern areas and China, has for more than a century been regarded as the second-highest mountain in the world.

What? Do mountains grow by hundreds of feet like trees?

Bhola Thapa of the Nepal Association of Travel Agents

But rumours have been circulating in the mountaineering world that new measurements show that it is actually taller than Everest.

As a recent edition of Britain's Sunday Express newspaper put it, "the entire history of climbing might have to be re-written."

Bhola Thapa of the Nepal Association of Travel Agents said he snorted with disbelief when he heard the report.

"What? Do mountains grow by hundreds of feet like trees?" Mr Thapa said.

Everest's mystique and lofty profile lure thousands of foreign visitors to Nepal every year.

Tourism revenue

Mr Thapa feels losing out to K2 would be costly for the impoverished Himalayan kingdom.

Everest: A great revenue earner for Nepal

"This is utter nonsense of course, but if it were true, then we'd definitely see a lot more people going to Pakistan," he said.

The news did cause concern at the headquarters of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, which boasts some of the top Everest climbers in the world.

Vice president Ang Tshiring Sherpa, an Everest veteran himself, said once he was worried about K2, but not any more.

"In 1996, the Italians measured it (K2) again and again. They found it was shorter than Everest", Mr Tshiring Sherpa said.

As his name suggests, he is a Sherpa. His people live close to the huge mountain and regard it as holy.

"We call the mountain Chomolungma, Goddess Mother of the World," he says, "and we know how important, how big, how sacred she is. K2 is definitely smaller."

Measurements

Mount Everest got its name from Sir George Everest, head of the Survey of India in British colonial times.

His surveyors were not allowed into Nepal - but from a distance managed to come up with a surprisingly accurate measurement - 29,002 feet.

The Italians just want to believe that theirs is the highest mountain

British mountaineer

Today, we know Everest to be 29,035 feet after an American expedition measured it with Global positioning system satellites in 1998.

K2's official height of 28,274 feet was also established in the mid-nineteenth century.

Rumours that it might actually be much, much higher - 13 feet taller than Everest - began in 1987 after a British expedition measured K2 and found it to be 29,041 feet.

Later, the team admitted that its equipment had been low on batteries and giving unreliable results.

Italians climbed K2 first, in 1954, and it has always been regarded as an "Italian mountain", just as Everest was seen as "British".

'Numero uno'

"So the Italians just want to believe that theirs is the highest mountain," said a British climber in Nepal, on his way to Everest.

"Well, they're wrong. The mountain that I'm going to is THE one. Numero Uno. That's it."

K2: The world's highest peak?

Clearly Nepal doesn't have much to worry about.

And if by remotest chance, K2 does turn out to be higher, Bhola Thapa has a suggestion.

"We'll just remeasure Kanchenjunga (the third highest mountain on Nepal's eastern border with India) and I'm sure we'll find that it's higher than K2. Then we'll see them all come running to climb it. That would be good for business."