The unique model of this text was revealed on ExplorersWeb.
A bunch of business Everest climbers plan to finish their climb in per week by chemically boosting their acclimatization and efficiency utilizing a brand new methodology: They may sip xenon fuel simply earlier than the climb after which push straight for the summit.
Whereas conventional alpinists bemoan the additional touristification of Everest, purchasers with extra money than time may view the strategy 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 facet impact of radically rising the physique’s manufacturing of EPO (erythropoietin, a hormone that regulates a wholesome degree of crimson blood cells). Xenon helps crimson blood cells multiply with out acclimatizing or injecting an artificial model of the hormone.
A small group of Furtenbach Adventures purchasers plan to fly to Kathmandu this spring when forecasts announce a climate window. There, they may obtain xenon remedy in a clinic earlier than flying to Everest Base Camp for an instantaneous summit push. The workforce 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 help. They’ve scheduled another day for the descent.
Lukas Furtenbach on the summit of Everest in spring 2024. Furtenbach is providing an experimental drug remedy for purchasers in search of Everest’s summit; (picture/Furtenbach Adventures)
Within the Title 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 purchasers 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 expertise used to help in the course of the precise climb, many paid purchasers can now pull off the whole journey — together with the Everest summit — in 3 weeks.
Climbers are additionally continuously monitored in the course of the summit push, Furtenbach added.
“We do this to prevent HAPE and HACE [pulmonary and cerebral edema], like any other way of acclimatizing, not to enhance performance,” Furtenbach stated. “Ultimately, it is about increasing safety. Better acclimatization equals better altitude sickness prevention, and less exposure time on the mountain equals a safer expedition. if people are against it, they are against improving safety on the mountain.”
At excessive altitudes, velocity 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 probabilities of frostbite, exhaustion, and psychological impairment.
A Hypoxico Deluxe Tent in motion; (picture/Alex Kurt)
Nevertheless, it’s additionally true that shorter expeditions cut back prices for outfitters and enchantment to a brand new area of interest of rich purchasers. Furtenbach expenses his xenon climbers $154,000. That’s largely as a result of xenon fuel is extraordinarily expensive: A 30-minute session prices $5,000 per particular person, in response to the Monetary Occasions.
Experimental Remedy
Furtenbach grew to become a believer in xenon remedy after utilizing it on Aconcagua in 2000. The thought was a suggestion from Michael Fries, a German anesthesiologist.
“A small team of us, including me, have used it for five years on different mountains,” Furtenbach stated. “Among them are Aconcagua, Everest, and Lhotse. We will start using it with clients in 2025. I am not aware of anyone else having the experience, knowledge, and technical equipment for this treatment.”
Nevertheless, taking xenon can be problematic for a lot of skilled athletes. The World Anti-Doping Company (WADA) has included xenon in its checklist of prohibited objects in skilled sports activities, for instance. In line with WADA, a substance wants to fulfill two of the next three standards to be added to the checklist 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 the usage of erythropoietin-receptor antagonists like EPO and variants, and hypoxia-inducible issue (HIF) activating brokers, similar to xenon and a few others.
Even with out taking xenon fuel, trendy methods like hypoxic coaching have diminished the period of time wanted to acclimate and reliably attain the summit of the world’s highest mountain. One of many purchasers of Alpenglow, one other fashionable guiding service, accomplished a 2019 Everest journey in 14 days.
The corporate’s CEO, Adrian Ballinger, stated he was happy with that achievement. He defined that the shopper had used hypoxic coaching “but no banned performance [substances] like EPO, xenon, or even dexamethasone.”
“I don’t use such drugs as a professional climber, and I hold my clients to the same standards,” Ballinger stated.
Adrian Ballinger, a critic of xenon fuel use in alpinism, proven right here mountain climbing on K2 in 2019; (picture/Adrian Ballinger)
‘No Doping in Mountaineering’
“I don’t use such drugs as a professional climber, and I hold my clients to the same standards,” Ballinger stated.
For Furtenbach, doping shouldn’t be 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, then again, believes that mountaineering ought to hold the identical no-doping requirements as different endurance sports activities like biking or path operating.
“There is also a safety issue,” Ballinger stated. “Banned substances like EPO involve risks, and with the limited rescue resources on the upper sections of Everest, that risk becomes huge. [With xenon,] it’s like running a scientific experiment with clients, which makes pretty interesting decision-making for a guide.”
However Furtenbach defended xenon’s report: “This gas has been used in anesthesia for more than 40 years. Countless studies show that it has no negative side effects, even with much higher doses than we are applying.”
As for the Kathmandu clinic the place the therapy might be equipped, Furtenbach stated the placement varies, however it’ll all the time present a full medical setup.
WADA particularly prohibits the usage of erythropoietin-receptor antagonists like EPO and variants, and hypoxia-inducible issue (HIF) activating brokers, similar to xenon and a few others.
(Picture/Daniel Prudek through Shutterstock)
Different Everest expedition leaders contacted by ExplorersWeb have been unaware of the xenon remedies.
Garret Madison of the U.S. was additionally “personally shocked” after studying the article: “I don’t offer performance-enhancing drugs to my clients,” he stated.
The evolution of business climbing in increased mountains has repeatedly proven a give attention to getting purchasers to the summit as quick, safely, and comfortably as attainable. 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 workforce, shared his opinion in opposition to quick expeditions and favors as a substitute to “celebrate the journey, not just the outcome [and embrace] the spirit of expedition climbing.”
Nevertheless, the evolution of business climbing in increased mountains has repeatedly proven a give attention to getting purchasers to the summit as shortly, safely, and comfortably as attainable. Whereas alpinists consider journey when imagining a visit to the Himalaya, upscale Twenty first-century purchasers wish to eradicate journey from the equation. They’re prepared to pay hefty sums to eradicate any uncertainty.
Everest base camp; (picture/Shutterstock)
Are Medication a New Regular for Alpinism?
Mountaineers surreptitiously taking substances which can be forbidden in regulated sports activities shouldn’t be new. The usage of EPO has been a relentless rumor in base camps for over a decade, in response to ExplorersWeb.
Many climbers take every kind of capsules 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 typically merely to proceed their summit ascent.
Whereas anti-doping guidelines could not technically apply to excessive mountaineering, the rise of drug therapies to fight altitude raises many questions on the way forward for alpinism.
