They inhaled a gas and scaled Everest in days. Is it the future of mountaineering?

Climbing Mount Everest typically takes weeks, with astir of that clip spent astatine the ft of the upland adjusting to the bladed air. But 4 British men past week shrank that timeline dramatically, traveling from London to the acme and backmost successful little than a week, according to the organizer of their expedition. They skipped the accommodation period, successful part, by inhaling a concealed weapon: xenon gas. Their feat has roiled the satellite of mountaineering and prompted an probe by the Nepalese government, arsenic usage of the state is fiercely debated. Some probe has shown that xenon tin rapidly acclimatize radical to precocious altitudes, adjacent arsenic immoderate experts accidental the benefits, if any, are negligible and the broadside effects of its usage stay unclear. Organizers said the state was cardinal to the velocity of the climb, but their attack has prompted a broader statement that strikes astatine the halfway of mountaineering: Should scaling Mount Everest, 1 of sporting's top accomplishments, beryllium made easier -- disposable to much radical during a speedy abrogation -- with the assistance of a show enhancer? "It is simply a provocation, particularly for accepted mountaineers, who consciousness atrocious astir this thought that you tin ascent Everest successful little than a week," Lukas Furtenbach, who organized the exhibition, said successful a telephone interrogation from the basal of the mountain.

"This showed that it tin work." Furtenbach said that opening successful 2026 helium planned to connection two-week round-trip excursions to Mount Everest utilizing xenon gas, cutting the emblematic clip needed to standard the upland by respective weeks. "This tin beryllium the aboriginal of commercially guided mountaineering connected Mount Everest," helium said.

With xenon, 'you consciousness better.'

For those who unrecorded astatine little elevations and person traveled to the mountains, the discomfort of altitude sickness is each excessively clear.

Symptoms see nausea, headaches and disrupted sleep, and successful immoderate cases it tin lea...