The Nation - News from March 9, 1987

Satellite-assisted measurements indicate Mt. Everest may lose its place in the record books as the highest peak in the world, a mountain-climbing astronomer says. George Wallerstein of the University of Washington in Seattle calculated that another Himalayan mountain--K-2--might be more than 100 feet taller than Everest, which lies in Nepal on the border with Tibet. During an American expedition last summer, Wallerstein used a device known as a satellite transit surveyor to place the height of K-2 at 29,150 feet--900 feet higher than its official height. Mt. Everest’s official height is 29,028 feet. K-2 is about 900 miles northwest of Everest.