What is the elevation of Mount Everest’s officially recognised summit?

Mount Everest’s officially recognised summit elevation is 8,848.86 metres above sea level.

Nepal and China announced this jointly measured height in December 2020. The figure includes the summit’s snow and ice cap, which can change over time, while earlier surveys produced slightly different values. The mountain is called Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet.

Everest lies in the Himalayas on the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Its summit is the highest point above mean sea level, but it is not the point farthest from Earth’s centre; that distinction belongs to the summit of Chimborazo in Ecuador because Earth bulges at the equator.

The first confirmed ascent reached the summit in 1953, when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed from the Nepalese side.