Tackling Everest in a Week is Now Made Possible with the use of Xenon Gas

For the mountaineers, climbing the peaks of Mount Everest is the piece de resistance of their careers. What a lot of people don't realize is that accomplishing the feat will likely take upwards of two months out of their every day lives.

Recently, the Financial Times released an article featuring a climbing company whose goal is to offer their clients the use of xenon gas to make acclimatizing safer and to cut down the length of the expeditions from up to two months down to just one week.

Lukas Furtenbach, head of Furtenbach Adventures, has been acting the guinea pig in introducing this radical new way of cutting down the timeline of climbing to the topmost peaks of Everest. The mountain guide from Innsbruck, Austria, has already made an excursion to Aconcagua in Argentinea in January of 2020, completing the whole trip in 8 days, including travel time.

He reported that he encountered no problems on the summit and that his blood oxygen levels were higher than those of his guides, who were already fully acclimatized. Further expeditions, including one on Everest itself proved the theory again.

This winter, he, accompanied by an airline pilot, two entrepreneurs and a government minister, will make their way to Kathmandu, beginning their long awaited expedition to further test the xenon theory. This will be the first time the gas will be used on clients.

Before beginning the climb, each mountaineer will be given a xenon blend formula created by German doctor, Michael Fries. After a 30 minute administration of the noble gas, the group will then proceed to meet their Sherpas and begin the arduous climb.

The idea of using xenon for high altitude climbing was first thought up by aforementioned German doctor, Michael Fries. In 2019, Lukas Furtenbach got an email from Fries, who had caught wind of the way Furtenbach Adventure trains their clients for their ascent of Everest.

His email suggested that at a low dosage, xenon gas would speed up the process of "pre-acclimatizing" by boosting the body's EPO production, synthetic versions of which, are banned in the sports industry due to its performance enhancing effects.

Typically, Furtenbach Adventures issues their clients with hypoxic sleeping tents, which extract oxygen from sealed canopies, simulating high-altitude conditions. For up to eight weeks, mountaineers use this equipment combined with using masks to breathe thinner air while hitting the gym, will prepare them for the real deal.

In theory, this method of training triggers the body's natural response to hypoxia (low oxygen levels) and signals the kidneys to produce more erythropoietin (EPO). EPO is a hormone that is in charge of boosting red blood cell production, and in turn, boosting the capacity for oxygen to be transported.

This type of pre-acclimatizing is a long process and can take up to eight weeks prior to climbers' actual trip up the mountain, and if proper preparation is not taken, could lead to altitude sickness and even death. The utilization of xenon will ultimately speed up the EPO production, making it easier and safer to acclimatize as the air gets thinner and thinner.

It seems as though the ground-breaking expedition will be a game, set, and match for the mountain guide industry, changing the way climbers will conquer high altitude expeditions. However, the triumphal discovery will not come without some backlash.

For one, the cost of a 30-minute session to breathe in the anesthetic gas costs $5,000 per person, adding to the already significant number on the "climbing Mount Everest" price tag.

For another, xenon has been on the list of World Anti-Doping Agency since 2014 after reports of it being used at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Questions have been raised on whether or not using xenon for mountaineering is ethically correct.

Ultimately, it seems that the line must be drawn by the individual, as mountaineering is not technically an organized sport, and safety has no price.

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