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National Geographic
19 hours ago
- Science
- National Geographic
When climbing the world's tallest mountains, what counts as cheating?
To reach the highest point on Earth, average climbers need around three to four weeks to let their bodies acclimatize on the ascent and descent. To cut that time to only seven days, mountain climber Lucas Furtenbach is offering a chemical boost with xenon, an inert gas that is mainly used as an anesthetic. Photograph by Cory Richards, Nat Geo Image Collection In 1978, Austrian physician and mountaineer Oswald Oelz was a team doctor on an expedition to Mount Everest when climbers Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler became the first people to reach its summit without supplemental oxygen. Before then, it was unthinkable that humans, unassisted, could climb 29,032 feet, the height of Everest, where due to drop in atmospheric pressure we inhale only about 30 percent of the oxygen we breath at sea level. Almost half a century later, Oelz's grand-nephew, Austrian climbing guide Lukas Furtenbach, was the architect of a new feat atop Mount Everest. This May, four of his clients, along with five Sherpas, summited the world's tallest mountain only five days after they left London. Usually, it takes an average of 40 days of slow acclimatisation to adjust to the high altitude and scarce oxygen on Everest. The secret to the team's lightning-fast ascent: About two weeks before the expedition, Furtenbach's clients were given xenon through a medical mask. The noble gas is sometimes used as an anaesthetic but is also thought to boost the production of erythropoietin, a hormone that stimulates red blood cell production. The idea, suggested to Furtenbach by German anaesthesiologist Michael Fries, was to artificially accelerate the acclimatisation process. The strategy, however, immediately caused controversy in the mountaineering community. Experts on high-altitude research who spoke to National Geographic mainly questioned whether xenon could actually produce an effect strong enough to mimic acclimatisation. And earlier this year, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation issued a statement warning about the absence of scientific studies to prove the safety and efficacy of xenon at high altitude. Then there's the question of whether xenon, banned in professional sport by the World Anti-Doping Agency, makes the climb up Everest so easy that it obscures the line between sportsmanship and tourism. Around 7,000 people climb Everest every year with the help of supplemental oxygen. For others, using supplemental oxygen is considered a cheap shortcut akin to utilizing sherpas and fixed-ropes. Left, a climber scales Mount Everest with the aid of supplemental oxygen. Right, oxygen tanks are seen along a section of Everest called "the Balcony" near the summit. Photograph by Matthew Irving, Nat Geo Image Collection (Top) (Left) and Photograph by Mark Fisher, Nat Geo Image Collection (Bottom) (Right) In the world of mountaineering, there's no regulatory body governing monitoring performance-enhancing drugs, but the style of a climber's ascent still holds reputational cache. Ever since Messner and Habeler's 1978 expedition proved that even the highest mountain on Earth could be climbed without supplemental oxygen, not using it has become an essential part of pushing the limits of the human body in high altitude. Called alpine style, this form of mountaineering—embraced by elite climbers—prizes climbs done without medical aids, fixed lines, or large support teams. In contrast, a 30-year boom in commercial expeditions has focused on making the mountains more accessible to less experienced climbers, with hundreds of feet of fixed ropes, large amounts of supplemental oxygen, and the support of Sherpas. Some tour guides who lead these large groups say the controversy ignited by xenon places unfair scrutiny on what's simply the latest of many tools making mountain climbing more accessible and safer. American climber Adrian Ballinger, owner of Alpenglow Expeditions, thinks climbers should just be honest about the style they choose. 'Professional athletes don't use supplemental oxygen when climbing in the mountains because it makes things easier. But for recreational and non-professional climbers who hire guiding companies, it's different,' he says. However, he draws the line at the use of xenon in mountaineering—even in commercial expeditions. 'I don't see any reason,' he says, 'to use a substance banned as doping.' Doing drugs, 29,032 feet high Climbers have a long history of employing different drugs to survive the cold and dangerous conditions of Earth's highest peaks. In 1953, mountaineering legend Hermann Buhl took methamphetamine pills, then known by the brand name Pervitin, to stay awake during a perilous descent after summiting the Himalayan mountain Nanga Parbat in Pakistan. (Buhl made his climb without supplementary oxygen and became the first and only person to achieve a solo first ascent of an 8,000-meter peak, famously surviving the night at 26,000 feet by standing on a tiny ledge.) In the following decades, mountaineers experimented with both banned and legal substances, from amphetamine to Viagra. Two well-known prescription drugs, diuretic acetazolamide (commonly known as Diamox) and corticosteroid dexamethasone (Decadron) are often used to treat high-altitude conditions like acute mountain sickness or cerebral edema—but against expert recommendations, some climbers take them preventatively. Nothing, however, works better to fight hypoxia and enhance performance at high altitude than a steady flow of supplemental oxygen. Hermann Buhl in 1953, after summiting Nanga Parba, the ninth highest mountain in world, located in Pakistan. Under the influence of the drug pervitin, a stimulant similar to methamphetamine, Buhl was able to push on to the summit after the rest of his team was forced to return to camp, making Buhl the first and only person to make a solo-ascent of an 8,000 meter peak. Photograph by Touring Club Italiano/Marka/UniversalA view of Nanga Parbat as seen from Jammu & Kashmir, 1933. Photograph by Royal Air Force/Royal'If you use supplemental oxygen continuously, oxygen delivery to tissues is maintained. You will not develop altitude illness, and exercise performance will not be affected,' explains Martin Burtscher, a long-time researcher in the field of high-altitude medicine and retired professor at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. This is why some climbers, still devoted to purist alpine style, refrain from using supplemental oxygen, since they consider it a form of high-altitude doping. Furtenbach adhered to this minimalist climbing style when he was younger, but over time opted for climbing aids that he says made ascents safer for him and his clients. He doesn't think new techniques should be looked down on if they make climbing in the Himalaya safer. 'If you want to climb at this altitude, you can do it in either an extremely dangerous way and risk your life, or you can try to climb as safely as possible,' says Furtenbach. 'And that means you need to use all the medical aids that are available.' He argues that singling out xenon is hypocritical: 'If someone wants to ban xenon from mountaineering, then it needs to be consistent and ban everything—from oxygen to dexamethasone.' The tinkling of bells accompanies yaks hauling propane and other supplies to Advanced Base Camp. Photograph by Renan Ozturk, Nat Geo Image Collection Before he became an advocate of xenon, Furtenbach had experimented with having clients sleep at home in tents with reduced oxygen and training with limited oxygen to help simulate the acclimatization process. That shortened the ascent time to three weeks. Knowing this, Fries, the anaesthesiologist, approached Furtenbach back in 2019 with the idea of using xenon and its erythropoietin production ability to accelerate acclimatisation even further. When confronted with limited oxygen at high altitude, the human body gradually releases erythropoietin after several weeks of acclimatisation, as a climber makes rounds up and down the mountain, slowly gaining altitude. Fries, who spent 15 years researching different effects of xenon while working at Aachen University's hospital in Germany, theorized that a one-time low-dose administration of the gas could produce the same results in a matter of days. Fries also contends that xenon can prevent high-altitude sickness due, in part, to its positive effect on the blood vessels that connect the heart and lungs. Furtenbach first tested xenon on himself in 2020 while climbing Argentina's 22,831-foot Aconcagua and, two years later, on Everest. Both times, he says, he felt strong and fast, and didn't experience any negative side effects. Then he crafted a plan for including xenon in the expeditions offered by his self-titled company, Furtenbach Adventures, which facilitates climbs up Everest and other famous mountains. The decision to offer xenon to clients, he says, was done to make climbing safer. 'The fewer rotations you have to do on the mountain, the safer the expedition becomes,' he argues. (Furtenbach also thinks shorter trips could help curtail the large amounts of garbage long expeditions leave behind.) For the first-ever xenon 'powered' expedition, he chose four British clients, who boasted a combination of high-altitude climbing experience and military training. After ten weeks of pre-acclimatisation at home, sleeping and training with limited oxygen, they received a low dose of xenon in a German hospital and two weeks later embarked from London on their five-day-long ascent. No immediate serious side effects from the xenon treatment were observed by Furtenbach or the members of the expedition. The price of the climb was 150,000 euros a person. Furtenbach declined to specify how much xenon, an expensive gas, added to this total. Climbing rope is a ubiquitous tool amongst mountaineers, and learning how to safely build anchors and belay are essential skills. However, on some mountains, ropes may be pre-anchored and left in place for the entirety of the season to aid less experienced climbers. Left, the first Nepali female to climb Manaslu studies ice anchors in a climbing class. Right, a mountaineer descends to camp III during an attempt to summit Hkakabo Razi, said to be Southeast Asia's tallest mountain. Photograph by Aaron Huey, Nat Geo Image Collection (Top) (Left) and Photograph by Renan Ozturk, Nat Geo Image Collection (Bottom) (Right) Not everyone with high-altitude expertise is convinced that xenon is the best way to quickly climb Everest. Some experts argued that a one-week ascent might be possible without a miracle drug like xenon, if only the climbers would use a high enough flow of oxygen right from the bottom. 'If you have a big flow of oxygen, you don't need to work as hard to acclimatise. From an oxygen perspective, you're not going to the summit of Everest, but much lower,' says Mike Grocott, professor of anaesthesia and critical care at the University of Southampton in England and expert on the physiology of hypoxia. This theory, too, was tested this May when Ukraine-born Andrew Ushakov stated that he climbed to the top of Everest in a little less than four days after leaving New York. To achieve this, he used supplemental oxygen and trained in low-oxygen conditions. A team from the Elite Exped company guided Ushakov to the top. He says he used oxygen as soon as he started his ascent from the base camp, starting with a flow of 0.5 liters per minute and slowly increasing it to three to four liters per minute, which he used on the summit day. The xenon team, Furtenbach says, didn't start using oxygen until they reached 19,700 feet, continuing from there with a usual flow of 1 to 2 litres per minute. Higher flow was used only above 26,000 feet. This theoretically means xenon could indeed have some effect on the acclimatisation process, beyond supplemental oxygen. Still, without peer-reviewed studies, it's hard to conclude that the xenon made a difference, warns Peter Hackett, a high-altitude researcher and professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. 'My question is—why the big rush,' he says. 'These ascents reveal that Everest's challenge is now all about dealing with hypoxia and not really climbing.' For some climbers, no extra help wanted Climbers who abstain from performance-boosting drugs and supplemental oxygen see xenon as just another departure from the purest, and thereby most elite, form of climbing. The Piolet d'Or, the most coveted mountaineering award, perhaps best exemplifies the most prestigious climbing styles. The award currently doesn't consider ascents done with supplemental oxygen or fixed lines, giving the spotlight to imaginative and innovative new routes, doing more with less, and building on experience. One of the winning teams of last year's Piolet d'Or, American climbers Matt Cornell, Jackson Marvell, and Alan Rousseau, spent seven days charting a new route up the steep north face of Jannu in Nepal. To pack lightly, they shared a single sleeping bag. 'Alpinism without the factor of the unknown is only the plain physical activity,' says Slovenian climbing legend Marko Prezelj, four-time winner of Piolet d'Or. 'If somebody prepares the mountain for you by putting in fixed lines and you climb together with 500 people, there is nothing unknown.' The Everest massif from Camp I on Pumori. Photograph by Cory Richards, Nat Geo Image Collection Famous American alpinist Steve House, best known for his bold 'alpine style' first ascent on the Rupal face of Nanga Parbat in 2005, sees alpinism as a process of stripping away excesses to get closer to the experience. 'There is nothing inherently wrong with the ascents done with supplemental oxygen and xenon, but we need to understand these climbs as tourism, not alpinism,' says House. And Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, the first Nepali to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen and founder of the Nepal-based guiding company Imagine Nepal, says there should be a limit to what tour companies offer. He thinks that the traditional way of doing proper acclimatisation is more valuable. 'I would always suggest to clients to do at least one rotation on the mountain up to Camp 2, before the summit push, so they can understand their body at high altitude. We also don't take clients without previous experience,' he says. But even if assisted climbs and medical aids become more common, Alpenglow Expeditions' Ballinger thinks there will always be an interest in unassisted alpine climbing. 'There are endless new route opportunities for alpinism in the Himalaya. And I don't think the fact that we have commercial guiding on a handful of routes on the world's most popular mountains gets in the way of the cutting-edge side of the sport,' says Ballinger. Peter Hackett, the high-altitude researcher, is less optimistic. 'The improved access, safety, and success on Everest have led to a new 'generation' of high-altitude tourists with high ambition but little climbing experience, and more money than time,' he says. 'It's all about— how I can bag this summit and miss as little work as possible.'
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Innovation or dangerous: Xenon gas use to scale Mount Everest faster stirs debate
A new high-altitude climbing strategy is making headlines and stirring serious controversy in the mountaineering world. Last week, four British climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest less than five days after leaving London. The group's organizer, mountain guide Lukas Furtenbach, told The Associated Press that they had inhaled xenon gas during a pre-expedition treatment in Germany. The gas, along with training in hypoxic tents and use of supplemental oxygen, allowed them to bypass the usual multi-week acclimatization process required for most climbers attempting the 29,000-foot peak. "This showed that it can work," Furtenbach told The NY Times, adding that his company plans to offer two-week Everest expeditions beginning next year. "This can be the future of commercially guided mountaineering." But others say it could put lives at risk and damage the mountain's future. Chris Dare, a Canadian climber who summited Everest in 2019, told CBC News that this kind of shortcut could worsen already dangerous overcrowding conditions. "Making the mountain easier to summit will likely attract more climbers," he said, "exacerbating the already serious overcrowding problem." That year, 11 people died during the spring climbing season. Dare also raised concerns about safety and scientific uncertainty around xenon, saying "it just seems very, very risky at this onset, right at the beginning." He warned that climbers using gas-assisted techniques might overestimate their preparedness and suffer from altitude sickness or worse. "You're not training the traditional way of being on the mountain for a month and a half, two months to acclimatize in the natural environment," he explained. Xenon is a rare, odorless gas with medical applications, including use as an anesthetic and to diagnose lung conditions. Some researchers believe it can boost red blood cell production and oxygen-carrying capacity, mimicking high-altitude acclimatization. But experts remain skeptical of its use for mountaineering. "There's no science to say that this works at high altitudes for climbers, and there's no science to say that it doesn't," Dr. Peter Hackett, a high-altitude researcher at the University of Colorado, told CBC News. "It's worth studying, but not because it could help people bag a summit faster." Hackett emphasized that Furtenbach's team also used hypoxic tents and supplemental oxygen, both well-known acclimatization aids, making it misleading to credit xenon alone for the team's rapid ascent. Dr. Rob Casserley, a British climber and physician who has summited Everest eight times, said he worries about the psychological risks of skipping the usual adaptation period. "You start putting in people who've just come cold turkey out of their normal environment," he told CBC News. "It will put them at great psychological risk of having some kind of meltdown." The Nepalese government is now investigating the climb, Himal Gautam, director of Nepal's tourism department, told The New York Times. "Using xenon is against climbing ethics."
Korea Herald
29-05-2025
- Korea Herald
Everest in five days: British team's speed climb triggers Nepal proble
KATHMANDU, Nepal (Kathmandu Post/ANN) — Four former British special forces soldiers have set a startling new precedent on Mount Everest, reaching the summit in under five days without the traditional acclimatisation process. Their rapid ascent of the planet's tallest peak has drawn sharp scrutiny from Nepali authorities, not for the climb itself, but for the controversial use of xenon gas prior to arrival in Nepal. The team, comprising Maj. Garth Miller, Col. Alistair Scott Carns, Anthony James Stazicker and Kevin Francis Godlington, summited the world's highest peak at approximately 7:15 a.m. on Wednesday. Their journey began in London on the afternoon of May 16, with the climbers arriving at Everest Base Camp the following day. By 10:30 p.m. on May 20, they had begun their final summit push. Back home, the team had trained in hypoxic tents and followed a rigorous high-altitude conditioning regime. But what has provoked the current controversy is their reported inhalation of xenon gas, administered two weeks before departure in Europe, intended to reduce the risk of altitude sickness. Himal Gautam, director of the Department of Tourism, who oversees mountaineering expeditions, said the department was not informed of the gas use. "We have launched an investigation into the matter," he said, noting that all climbers and operators must declare the equipment, medications, and substances used during expeditions. Traditionally, climbers take more than a month to summit Everest. They begin their trek in early April and complete multiple rotations between Everest Base Camp and higher camps to acclimatize. These rotations are vital for adapting to the thinning air at high altitudes and skipping them is considered risky. By contrast, the British team completed the entire climb in just five days — a feat that would have been unimaginable in previous decades. While their speed has captivated parts of the global mountaineering community, it has triggered a heated debate in Nepal about safety, ethics and the future of high-altitude climbing. The expedition was organized by the Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures, whose founder, Lukas Furtenbach, insists the team followed all rules. He confirmed that the xenon treatment was administered in Germany and emphasized that only standard supplemental oxygen was used on the mountain. "What happens outside Nepal should not be under the purview of the Nepal government," he said. He defended xenon's use as a modern, medically supervised intervention to prevent altitude sickness and suggested it could make Himalayan expeditions safer. "Our company has a long-standing reputation for safety," Furtenbach said, expressing confidence that the investigation would find no wrongdoing. He also pointed to potential environmental benefits. "Shorter expeditions mean less garbage, lower carbon emissions, and reduced human waste in the fragile alpine ecosystem," he argued. Despite the abbreviated climb, Furtenbach claimed his team employed about 120 local workers and paid them competitively, demonstrating, in his view, that sustainability and economic benefit could go hand in hand. Yet not all stakeholders are convinced. Dambar Parajuli, president of the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal, warned that widespread adoption of such short-duration climbs could upend the economic model on which the Everest industry depends. "Traditional expeditions employ sherpas, porters, guides, and kitchen staff for weeks, sometimes months," he said. "If climbers finish their journey in days, the ripple effect on local employment will be devastating." He urged the government to consider the broader implications of this shift and to ensure that new policies uphold the livelihoods of communities that depend on the Everest economy. Xenon's use further complicates matters. In 2014, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned the gas for athletes, citing its potential to enhance performance by stimulating the production of erythropoietin (EPO). This hormone boosts red blood cell production. However, mountaineering does not fall under WADA's purview, and there is no ban on its use for non-competitive climbers. In January, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) released a statement on xenon, concluding that it offers no proven performance benefit for altitude climbing. "Although a single dose may cause a short-term spike in EPO levels, there is no evidence that this translates into increased red blood cell count or improved performance," the UIAA said. It emphasized that acclimatisation is a complex physiological process that a single intervention cannot hack. Moreover, the UIAA warned that xenon is a potent anaesthetic, not widely approved for medical use, and carries health risks. "In an unmonitored environment like Everest, side effects such as impaired brain function or respiratory distress could be fatal," the statement said. One study cited by the UIAA reported significant sedation even at doses recommended for mountaineering, posing a potentially serious risk in high-altitude zones where alertness can mean the difference between life and death. Still, Furtenbach dismissed these concerns. He said his company followed ethical and medical guidelines and remained open to cooperation with Nepali authorities. "We are transparent and willing to share our expertise with the government. But there needs to be a better understanding of modern medical science," he said. The Everest "death zone," above 8,000 meters, is one of the most hostile environments on Earth. Oxygen is scarce; even seasoned climbers risk pulmonary or cerebral edema, frostbite, and exhaustion. That such terrain could be tackled in mere days through science and training challenges deeply held beliefs about human endurance and the ethics of high-altitude mountaineering. As Nepal's investigation proceeds, officials face a new dilemma: how to regulate innovation without sacrificing safety, fairness, or the economic sustainability of Everest expeditions.
Yomiuri Shimbun
29-05-2025
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Britons Become 1st to Scale Mt. Everest with Help of Xenon Gas, Organizer Says
KATHMANDU (Reuters) — Four British climbers became the first to scale Mt. Everest on May 21 using xenon gas, which helped them save several weeks that mountaineers need to get used to high altitudes, an official of their expedition organizing company said. Normally climbers spend several weeks or even months on the mountain to allow their bodies to adjust to higher altitudes before trying to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain. It is extremely dangerous to go up if the climber is not properly acclimatized. The British climbers, who had inhaled xenon gas in Germany before embarking on the expedition, climbed the 8,848 meter peak in less than five days after departing London, said Lukas Furtenbach of the Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures that organized the expedition. They slept in special tents that simulate high-altitude conditions at home before heading to the mountain and used supplemental oxygen like other climbers during their ascent. Xenon is a colorless and odorless gas found in very small amounts in the earth's atmosphere and is known to have some anesthetic properties and medical uses. 'Xenon improves the acclimatization and protects the body from altitude sickness and the effects from the hypoxic environment,' Furtenbach told Reuters in a text message from the base camp, referring to the low oxygen environment in the mountains. Furtenbach, who has logged four Everest ascents, said xenon gas was used by guides before, but 'it is the first time for clients,' or ordinary climbers. Xenon made the climb safer and shorter as it kept the climbers properly acclimatized, he said. 'Shorter expedition also means less garbage, less resources, less human waste in this sensitive environment,' Furtenbach said. Piles of garbage dumped by climbers have been an issue on Everest in recent years. American climber and guide Adrian Ballinger of the Alpenglow Expeditions company called the use of xenon a 'stunt … it's never seemed like the type of experience we want to provide.' 'Everyone should climb the mountain in a form they are proud of. If these climbers are proud of this style, then that's their choice,' Ballinger said. Nepal has issued permits to 468 people to Everest during the current March-May climbing season, and more than 200 have already topped the summit so far.
Time of India
28-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
They inhaled a gas and scaled Everest in days. Is it the future of mountaineering?
Photo/Agencies Climbing Mount Everest typically takes weeks, with most of that time spent at the foot of the mountain adjusting to the thin air. But four British men last week shrank that timeline dramatically, traveling from London to the summit and back in less than a week, according to the organizer of their expedition. They skipped the adjustment period, in part, by inhaling a secret weapon: xenon gas. Their feat has roiled the world of mountaineering and prompted an investigation by the Nepalese government, as use of the gas is fiercely debated. Some research has shown that xenon can quickly acclimatize people to high altitudes, even as some experts say the benefits, if any, are negligible and the side effects of its use remain unclear. Organizers said the gas was key to the speed of the climb, but their approach has prompted a broader debate that strikes at the core of mountaineering: Should scaling Mount Everest , one of sporting's greatest accomplishments, be made easier -- available to more people during a quick vacation -- with the help of a performance enhancer? "It is a provocation, especially for traditional mountaineers, who feel bad about this idea that you can climb Everest in less than a week," Lukas Furtenbach, who organized the exhibition, said in a phone interview from the base of the mountain. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 입꼬리 올리는 여름, 인천에서 33만원 임플란트 만나보세요 플란치과 더 알아보기 Undo "This showed that it can work." Furtenbach said that beginning in 2026 he planned to offer two-week round-trip excursions to Mount Everest using xenon gas, cutting the typical time needed to scale the mountain by several weeks. "This can be the future of commercially guided mountaineering on Mount Everest," he said. With xenon, 'you feel better.' For those who live at lower elevations and have traveled to the mountains, the discomfort of altitude sickness is all too clear. Symptoms include nausea, headaches and disrupted sleep, and in some cases it can lead to brain swelling or even death. As you go higher, less oxygen is absorbed into the bloodstream with each breath. That is why so many people who climb Everest use supplemental oxygen. Xenon, an odorless gas, has been known for years to activate a molecule called the hypoxia-inducible factor, which is also turned on when people acclimate to low oxygen, said Hugh Montgomery, a professor of intensive care medicine at University College London and a mountaineer who led an expedition to Mount Everest to study how humans respond to low oxygen. "So what these people claim to have done," he said, "is basically found a way to switch on the adaptation to low oxygen levels." The group took what was known from medical science, he said, "and have now applied it, recreationally, to sport mountaineering." Montgomery said scientists were still unsure how xenon triggers this response. While some doctors have used the gas in the past to "precondition" patients to low oxygen levels -- for example, before major heart surgery -- the practice hasn't really caught on because "it hasn't been as protective as one would hope," he said. Mike Shattock, a professor of cellular cardiology at King's College London, said "xenon probably does very little, and there is virtually no reputable scientific evidence that it makes any difference." Experts cautioned that self-medicating with xenon, which has the effects of anesthesia, could lead to overdose or death, and more study was needed to understand how the gas works and its use in mountaineering. On Mount Everest, the weeks of training and acclimation on the lower levels of the mountain are typically required to survive the "death zone," the area above 26,000 feet where the air is particularly thin. The British group, which included four former special forces members, took a different approach. About 10 weeks before the expedition, the men began sleeping in hypoxic tents, which lower oxygen levels in the air and gradually acclimatized the hikers to conditions on Mount Everest, Furtenbach said. While hypoxic tents have been used by some climbers for years, the big innovation for the British expedition came two weeks before the excursion, when the men flew to Limburg, Germany, outside Frankfurt, where a doctor, Michael Fries, had been experimenting with inhaled gases in his clinic. The men wore masks hooked up to ventilators as an anesthesiologist slowly introduced higher levels of xenon into their systems. Furtenbach, who has tried xenon gas on his own mountaineering trips since 2020, said that after the treatment, users experienced enhanced breathing and the sensation of more lung volume, and "when you do your workout or training, you feel better." After arriving at the base of Everest, the British group climbed to the summit in less than three days, which Furtenbach said was one of the fastest times for a group that hadn't acclimatized on the mountain. (According to the Nepalese government, the record for the fastest climb overall is held by Lakpa Gelu, a Sherpa, who reached the top of the mountain in just under 11 hours.) The rapid climb by the British expedition and the use of the gas caught the eye of the Nepalese government, and the fallout has been swift. The use of the gas is 'against climbing ethics.' Himal Gautam, director of Nepal's tourism department, which is responsible for regulating expeditions on the nation's mountains, said in an interview that using the gas was "against climbing ethics," and that it would hurt the country's tourism industry and the Sherpas who help climbers by reducing their time on the mountain. Gautam said his department was looking into the use of the gas by the British climbers, one of whom, Alistair Carns, is also a member of Parliament. In an interview, Carns said that his expedition had been in touch with the ministry and clarified with the department that it had not taken the gas on the mountain. He added that many people who want to climb Mount Everest don't have the time to spend multiple weeks acclimating. "The reality is if I had six to eight weeks to climb Everest, I would, but I'm a government minister, and I don't have time," he said. "What we've done is we've proven that you can reduce the timeline safely." Others in the mountaineering community have warned against the use of the gas. In January, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, a global network that promotes and protects the sport, released a statement that said there was no evidence that xenon gas improved performance, adding that "inappropriate use can be dangerous." The federation noted that xenon has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances since 2014 and is not approved in all countries. "From a medical point of view, off-label use without a scientific basis and with unknown health risks must be rejected," the statement said. Furtenbach argued that his expeditions were still using Sherpas -- five accompanied the British climbers to the summit -- and that shorter times on the mountain were safer, as they reduce the chance that climbers will be exposed to other health threats, including avalanches, hypothermia or falls. He said the prohibition of the gas by the World Anti-Doping Agency didn't apply to mountaineering because it is not a regulated competitive sport. Use of the gas gets at a core question about why people climb mountains in the first place, Montgomery said. "Is it really a good idea that we can all have what we want, when we want, as quick as we want?" he asked. "Are we missing out on the sacrifice you sometimes have to make to get the achievement?" "I'm not a critic," he added. "But maybe just bagging every hill at speed means you miss out on the joy you could have had."
