Climbers using xenon gas to climb Everest

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The Financial Times recently ran a story about a guiding company offering its clients xenon gas for their ascent attempts of Mount Everest. According to the story, one expedition operator will charge $154,000 to climb Everest using xenon gas. Read a pdf of the story here for free.

The guiding company will be sending a group to attempt Everest this winter using Xenon gas. Whereas the fastest commercial Everest expeditions are currently around four weeks, using Xenon could speed things up to one week airport to airport. One session of xenon gas costs $5,000 per person for a 30-minute session.

The tour operator said they will have four clients inhale a xenon gas blend upon arrival in Kathmandu, then fly to base camp, then climb to the summit within two hours. They would then spend three days climbing and one day descending. The climbers would not need any acclimatization. Along with the xenon gas, climbers need to pre-acclimatize before travelling to Everest in a hypoxic altitude tent and still use bottled oxygen on the climb. These expeditions also have mountain guides and use Sherpa and porter support.

The Financial Times articles includes an interview with Dr. Michael Fries, a German anesthetist who helped design the xenon climbing model, said, “…has a separate effect at lower doses: boosting EPO production.” Erythropoietin (EPO) is produced by the kidneys naturally and it increases during acclimatization. The article also said of xenon: “The hormone, a synthetic version of which is banned in sport [read more here], boosts the production of red blood cells, increasing the body’s capacity to transport oxygen.” One tour operator told the Times: “It’s not an organised sport, so there’s technically no doping in mountaineering.”

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