Brit to attempt 'fastest ever' Everest climb, with help from xenon gas
15 January 2025, 14:36 | Updated: 15 January 2025, 14:37
A former British army officer is attempting the 'fastest ever' Everest mission, with help from xenon gas.
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Everest could be scaled in less than a week, rather than the usual two months, and British pilot and former Gurkha officer, Garth Miller, is leading the first mission.
Austrian guide, Lukas Furtenbach, has developed a method using small doses of xenon gas to 'pre-acclimatise' mountaineers to the altitude of the peak, according to the Financial Times.
Most successful Everest climbs take an average of eight weeks as climbers need to acclimatise to the altitude and undertake the trek to the base camp.
The use of the gas, and the fact the climbers will be helicopters from London to the base camp, cuts the trip time drastically.
Furtenbach claims that doses of xenon gas, sometimes used as rocket propellant, can make the body produce the hormone erythropoietin, which boosts production of red blood cells, allowing the heart to transport more oxygen around the bodies blood system.
Furternbach has been developing this method since 2006, as him and a small group of guides have created specialist sleeping tents that get climbers used low-oxygen conditions on the mountain.
He told the Financial Times that he believes his innovations will make mountaineering not just faster but safer.
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Garth Miller, the Brit taking the first group, is leading the first group to try the xenon gas.
He wants to set the fastest time from London to Everest.
He said to the FT: “I’m super-excited to see if we can leave home on a Monday morning, be on the summit of Everest on Thursday night, and make it home for Sunday lunch.”
Furternbach has tried the gas treatment himself, as he claimed Aconcagua, a 7000m mountain in Argentina.
He said: “[I] had no problems on the summit,
“I was standing there, thinking, ‘OK, this really works.’ I was totally convinced.”
The week-long trip will cost future climbers about £124,000. The gas costs £4000 per climber alone.
