Rambling: That's A Whole 0.041%

A recent geological survey conducted by the Chinese government has discovered a shocking result. The story can be read here.

It turns out that Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, is only 29,017 feet. The previous measurement of its height was 29,029 feet, meaning that the last measurement of the mountain done 30 years ago was in error by 12 feet. To put the error in perspective, that would be like the doctor's office measuring me to be 5'7.97" instead of the 5'8" that I really am. Not a big deal.
Still, suppose that it wasn't an error. What if the mountain were really shrinking? What would cause it shrink? Here are some options.
Option 1: Wind erosion. The peak of the mountain is at about the same altitude as the jet stream. Perhaps the intense winds of the jet stream are actually blowing the dirt, snow, and rocks off of the mountain. This effect, over time, could cause the mountain to lose about twelve feet of height.
Option 2: Global warming? Nope, global warming doesn't affect that part of the atmosphere. Only the lowest part of the atmosphere (very close to the surface) is seeing an increase in average temperature. Upper air temperatures have not been affected. So, no melting of glaciers up there, I'm sorry to say. And that allows me to side-step the whole issue of whether global warming is man-made or something natural, something that is not as settled as most atmospheric scientists would have you belive...
Option 3: Tourists. Yes, that's right, tourists taking the mountain back down with them could have resulted in the shrinking of the mountain. After all, if I ever made it to the top of such an insanely tall mountain, I'd want a souvenir. And nothing says, "I made it" more than a few feet of dirt from the mountain I just climbed.
Option 4: The mountain is moving faster. (Or the men who measured it were moving faster than 30 years ago.) According to Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity, objects in motion are perceived as being shorter than objects at rest (to put it simply). Thus, perhaps the mountain is really moving faster than it was 30 years ago, or the scientists who measured it were moving faster than the scientists who were moving 30 years ago. So, how fast would the mountain (or the scientists--it doesn't really matter) have needed to move to produce the necessary shrinking of the mountain? They would have had to move at 99.9999916% if the speed of light to have the mountain appear to shrink by 12 feet.
Option 5: The yedi. The yedi is the abominable snowman who supposedly lives somewhere in the Himalayas, the mountain range in which Everest lies. The team from 30 years ago measured the peak with the yedi (more than likely 2 yedis, in order to get twelve feet of height) standing on top of it. The yedis were not there this time because they decided to hang glide in the jet stream, and wound up in San Francisco, where they were mistaken for common, ordinary citizens.
Those are only some of the possibilities. I'm sure that those of you who are creative can come up with some other reasons why Mount Everest might actually be twelve feet shorter. If you have one, I'd love to hear it.