Mount Everest is now a few feet taller after officials in Nepal and China agreed on a new officially-recognized height measurement for the world’s tallest peak.
NPR reported Tuesday that the new measurement is 8,848.86 meters, about two feet higher than the previous measurement.
The new official measurement was announced at a joint press conference held by China and Nepal’s leaders.
“It is a historic day today,” Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari said in a letter addressed to Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to NPR.
“Indeed, completing this important task with our own human resources and technical capacity is a significant achievement. While sharing this happy moment, I extend my sincere congratulations to the governments and peoples of both Nepal and China.”
The two countries collaborated on the new survey effort due to Everest’s location at the Nepal-China border deep in the Himalayas. The latest measurement takes into consideration changes that have occurred to the landscape as a result of plate tectonics and earthquakes that have occurred in recent years.
Tuesday’s announcement ends the yearslong recognition of a measurement produced by an Indian survey team in 1955, which measured the peak to be at 29,029 feet above sea level.
The peak is a popular tourist attraction for mountain climbing enthusiasts and others.
It is often crowded during the limited climbing season, leading to waste accumulating on the mountain at a rate that has made headlines in recent years due to the difficulty in removing it from Everest’s icy landscape.