International alpinism association UIAA warns against xenon use in high-altitude mountaineering – Furtenbach contradicts

Mount Everest
Nepalese south side of Mount Everest

In the debate about the planned use of the noble gas xenon with the aim of shortening the duration of Everest expeditions to one week, the international alpinism association UIAA has now also intervened. “According to current [scientific] literature, there is no evidence that breathing in xenon improves performance in the mountains, and inappropriate use can be dangerous,” reads a statement from the UIAA Medical Commission.

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Xenon use on Everest short trip: “Trained doctor with appropriate equipment is absolutely essential”

Mount Everest
Mount Everest

And suddenly the mountaineering scene is discussing a noble gas that we all probably heard about in chemistry lessons at school. But most of us have forgotten all about it. Xenon is one of the rarest elements found on earth. Although it is in the air we breathe, the proportion of xenon is tiny: 87 billionths or 0.0000087 percent (I hope I didn’t make a mistake with the zeros).

If you want to extract xenon, this almost-nothing proportion has to be extracted from the air in a complex process. This makes the gas expensive. But it is also in demand. Xenon is used for light sources (such as car lamps), as a laser gas in the semiconductor industry, as a propulsion agent for satellites, in medicine as a high-tech anesthetic – and probably soon also in commercial eight-thousander mountaineering.

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With Xenon to Mount Everest and back in just one week?

Sunrise on Mount Everest
Sunrise on Mount Everest (in fall 2019)

Faster than the flash? Lukas Furtenbach is already calling one of his offers “Flash Expeditions”. For around 100,000 euros, the Austrian has been offering clients of his company Furtenbach Adventures the chance to climb Mount Everest in three weeks – with several weeks of hypoxia training at home, a helicopter shuttle to the mountain, two personal climbing sherpas for support and the use of bottled oxygen at a high flow rate. A conventional Everest expedition, which the company also has in its portfolio, lasts six weeks, others up to ten weeks. In the upcoming Everest spring season, Furtenbach now wants to do the whole thing in just one week. Can that work?

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