The unique model of this text was revealed on ExplorersWeb.
A gaggle of business Everest climbers plan to finish their climb in per week by chemically boosting their acclimatization and efficiency utilizing a brand new technique: They’ll sip xenon fuel simply earlier than the climb after which push straight for the summit.
Whereas conventional alpinists bemoan the additional touristification of Everest, shoppers with more cash than time may view the tactic as an ideal answer.
But the implications go nicely past Mount Everest.
What Is Xenon Fuel?
Xenon, an inert fuel typically used as an anesthetic, apparently has the aspect impact of radically rising the physique’s manufacturing of EPO (erythropoietin, a hormone that regulates a wholesome degree of purple blood cells). Xenon helps purple blood cells multiply with out acclimatizing or injecting an artificial model of the hormone.
A small group of Furtenbach Adventures shoppers plan to fly to Kathmandu this spring when forecasts announce a climate window. There, they’ll obtain xenon remedy in a clinic earlier than flying to Everest Base Camp for a direct summit push. The group defined the brand new strategy to Simon Usborne in a bit revealed over the weekend within the Monetary Occasions.
The plan is to climb Everest in 3 days, with full oxygen and sherpa assist. They’ve scheduled yet another day for the descent.
Within the Identify of Security
Lukas Furtenbach confirmed the plan to ExplorersWeb, and stated he’s ready for a backlash from some within the mountaineering neighborhood.
Over the previous couple of years, the Austrian information has specialised in “flash expeditions.” Earlier than shoppers even arrive within the Himalayas, they’re given hypoxic coaching, which makes use of cutting-edge gear to assist acclimate their our bodies. By combining that coaching with much more know-how used to help throughout the precise climb, many paid shoppers can now pull off all the journey — together with the Everest summit — in 3 weeks.
Climbers are additionally continuously monitored throughout the summit push, Furtenbach added.
“We do that to forestall HAPE and HACE [pulmonary and cerebral edema], like every other means of acclimatizing, to not improve efficiency,” Furtenbach stated. “Finally, it’s about rising security. Higher acclimatization equals higher altitude illness prevention, and fewer publicity time on the mountain equals a safer expedition. if individuals are in opposition to it, they’re in opposition to bettering security on the mountain.”
At excessive altitudes, pace is life, as climbers Inaki Ochoa de Olza and Ueli Steck used to say (each later died in mountain accidents). Furthermore, the possibly deadly results of publicity to altitude transcend HAPE and HACE. The extra time one spends at altitude, the upper the possibilities of frostbite, exhaustion, and psychological impairment.
Nonetheless, it’s additionally true that shorter expeditions cut back prices for outfitters and attraction to a brand new area of interest of rich shoppers. Furtenbach expenses his xenon climbers $154,000. That’s principally as a result of xenon fuel is extraordinarily dear: A 30-minute session prices $5,000 per particular person, in keeping with the Monetary Occasions.
Experimental Remedy
Furtenbach turned a believer in xenon remedy after utilizing it on Aconcagua in 2000. The concept was a suggestion from Michael Fries, a German anesthesiologist.
“A small group of us, together with me, have used it for 5 years on completely different mountains,” Furtenbach stated. “Amongst them are Aconcagua, Everest, and Lhotse. We are going to begin utilizing it with shoppers in 2025. I’m not conscious of anybody else having the expertise, data, and technical gear for this therapy.”
Nonetheless, taking xenon can be problematic for a lot of skilled athletes. The World Anti-Doping Company (WADA) has included xenon in its listing of prohibited objects in skilled sports activities, for instance. Based on WADA, a substance wants to satisfy two of the next three standards to be added to the listing of prohibited substances:
- It has the potential to reinforce efficiency
- It represents an precise or potential well being danger to the athletes
- It violates the spirit of sport
WADA particularly prohibits using erythropoietin-receptor antagonists like EPO and variants, and hypoxia-inducible issue (HIF) activating brokers, reminiscent of xenon and a few others.
Even with out taking xenon fuel, fashionable methods like hypoxic coaching have decreased the period of time wanted to acclimate and reliably attain the summit of the world’s highest mountain. One of many shoppers of Alpenglow, one other common guiding service, accomplished a 2019 Everest journey in 14 days.
The corporate’s CEO, Adrian Ballinger, stated he was pleased with that achievement. He defined that the shopper had used hypoxic coaching “however no banned efficiency [substances] like EPO, xenon, and even dexamethasone.”
“I don’t use such medicine as an expert climber, and I maintain my shoppers to the identical requirements,” Ballinger stated.
‘No Doping in Mountaineering’
“I don’t use such medicine as an expert climber, and I maintain my shoppers to the identical requirements,” Ballinger stated.
For Furtenbach, doping is just not relevant to high-altitude mountaineering. “It’s not an organized sport, so there’s technically no doping in mountaineering,” Furtenbach advised the Monetary Occasions.
Ballinger, however, believes that mountaineering ought to preserve the identical no-doping requirements as different endurance sports activities like biking or path operating.
“There’s additionally a security subject,” Ballinger stated. “Banned substances like EPO contain dangers, and with the restricted rescue sources on the higher sections of Everest, that danger turns into enormous. [With xenon,] it’s like operating a scientific experiment with shoppers, which makes fairly attention-grabbing decision-making for a information.”
However Furtenbach defended xenon’s file: “This fuel has been utilized in anesthesia for greater than 40 years. Numerous research present that it has no unfavorable unwanted side effects, even with a lot larger doses than we’re making use of.”
As for the Kathmandu clinic the place the therapy shall be equipped, Furtenbach stated the situation varies, however it would all the time present a full medical setup.
WADA particularly prohibits using erythropoietin-receptor antagonists like EPO and variants, and hypoxia-inducible issue (HIF) activating brokers, reminiscent of xenon and a few others.
Different Everest expedition leaders contacted by ExplorersWeb have been unaware of the xenon remedies.
“We had no information in regards to the subject,” stated Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions in Nepal.
Garret Madison of the U.S. was additionally “personally shocked” after studying the article: “I don’t supply performance-enhancing medicine to my shoppers,” he stated.
The evolution of business climbing in larger mountains has repeatedly proven a deal with getting shoppers to the summit as quick, safely, and comfortably as doable. And they’re prepared to pay hefty sums to eradicate any uncertainty from the equation.
U.S. blogger Alan Arnette, who climbed Everest in 2011 on Madison’s group, shared his opinion in opposition to quick expeditions and favors as an alternative to “have fun the journey, not simply the end result [and embrace] the spirit of expedition climbing.”
Nonetheless, the evolution of business climbing in larger mountains has repeatedly proven a deal with getting shoppers to the summit as shortly, safely, and comfortably as doable. Whereas alpinists consider journey when imagining a visit to the Himalaya, upscale Twenty first-century shoppers need to eradicate journey from the equation. They’re prepared to pay hefty sums to eradicate any uncertainty.
Are Medication a New Regular for Alpinism?
Mountaineers surreptitiously taking substances which are forbidden in regulated sports activities is just not new. The usage of EPO has been a relentless rumor in base camps for over a decade, in keeping with ExplorersWeb.
Many climbers take all types of tablets earlier than displaying signs of the diseases these medicines are sometimes prescribed for. Different climbers inject dexamethasone (the emergency drug utilized in circumstances of acute high-altitude illness) not solely to save lots of their lives but additionally generally merely to proceed their summit ascent.
Whereas anti-doping guidelines might not technically apply to excessive mountaineering, the rise of drug therapies to fight altitude raises many questions on the way forward for alpinism.
