British soldiers use xenon gas to scale Everest. Why is it controversial?

Though thousands of people have scaled Mount Everest over the years, it remains an impressive feat.

However, four British soldiers who did so recently found themselves in the middle of controversy.

This is because they used xenon gas during their ascent.

But what is xenon gas? What happened exactly? Why is the incident under the scanner of authorities?

Let’s take a closer look:

 What is it?

First, let’s take a brief look at xenon.

As per Britannica, xenon is a chemical element.

It belongs to the so-called ‘noble gases’ of the periodic table.

Noble gases are renowned for their lack of chemical reactivity.

It was discovered in 1898 by British chemists Sir William Ramsay and Morris W Travers.

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They did this by distilling the gas krypton – which they had discovered just weeks earlier.

Over 4.5 times heavier than air, xenon is colourless, odourless and tasteless.

It is found on the Earth only in trace amounts.

The world itself derives from the Greek ‘xenos’ – meaning ‘strange’ or ‘foreign’.

 The gas is used in a wide variety of fields.

As per CK Supply.com, this includes lamps in projectors and cinemas, flashlights, car headlights, CT scans, anesthesia, satellites, deep space missions, nuclear energy and metallurgy.

What’s the controversy?

 The trip was organised by Furtenbach Adventures – a company based in Austria.

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As pe_r BBC,_ the four British soldiers – Garth Miller, Alistair Carns, Anthony Stazicker, and Kev Godlington – used xenon gas to aid in their climb Mount Everest.

The team, which also comprised a UK government minister, did this in five days – a record time.

Climbers usually remain on Everest for a few weeks or even months before they try to ascend to the summit.

This process, called acclimatisation, gives the climbers’ bodies time to adjust to the thinner atmosphere and the lack of oxygen.

Those who do not acclimatise properly can face altitude sickness or hypoxia –which can result in serious injuries or even death.

However, the British soldiers employed xenon to speed up the acclimatisation process.

They did this in Germany two weeks before the climb.

As per the Times UK, xenon is thought to aid in the production of red blood cells – though some dispute the science around this.

“It helps to protect the body from altitude sickness,” expedition organiser Lukas Furtenbach explained to the BBC.

As per India Today, Furtenbach has climbed Mount Everest four times.

The team also slept in special oxygen tents before making the trip.

“We’ve all accumulated probably in excess of 500 hours in the hypoxic tent now, and that’s usually sleeping in the evening and then doing exercise with a mask on as well,” Carns told Washington Post.

The team, alongside by five Sherpas and a cameraman, reached the 29,032-foot summit early on Wednesday.

“They started on the afternoon of 16th May and summited on the morning of the 21st, taking four days and approximately 18 hours,” Furtenbach added.

As per India Today, the men also relied on supplemental oxygen – as other climbers do.

They then quickly began their descent.

The outlet quoted Furtenbach as saying this was good for the environment.

“Shorter expedition also means less garbage, less resources, less human waste in this sensitive environment,” Furtenbach said.

Why is the incident under the scanner of authorities?

 But while the team may be happy to tout their accomplishment, not everyone is impressed.

American climber and guide Adrian Ballinger of the Alpenglow Expeditions company called the use of xenon a “stunt … it’s never seemed like the type of experience we want to provide.”

“Everyone should climb the mountain in a form they are proud of. If these climbers are proud of this style, then that’s their choice,” Ballinger said.

“It is a banned substance by all professional sporting organisations, and even though [mountain climbing] is not managed by a sporting organisation, it’s always been a goal of climbers to follow best practices of not doping. All that combined makes it feel, I guess, pretty icky. People should be able to climb how they want to, but it isn’t mountain climbing; it’s mountain tourism,” he told Washington Post.

Experts also cast doubt on whether xenon actually does anything for mountain climbers.

Peter Hackett, a mountaineering expert and physician, wondered, “Does xenon increase red blood cells? Well, that’s never really been shown conclusively.”

“It does increase EPO transiently, but in one study that was done in athletes, it did not increase red blood cells and it did not increase their exercise performance. But that’s one study done under certain circumstances, and it needs to be studied again under varying circumstances.”

Andrew Peacock, an honorary professor specialising in altitude medicine at the University of Glasgow, told the BBC an “increase in erythropoietin does nothing on its own. The question in this case is, does it really stimulate production of red blood cells in such a short period?”

The outlet quoted the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation as saying, “According to current literature, there is no evidence that breathing in xenon improves performance in the mountains, and inappropriate use can be dangerous. Although a single inhalation of xenon can measurably increase the release of erythropoietin, this increase is not sustained over four weeks’ use, nor is it associated with any changes in red blood cells. According to the literature, the effects on performance are unclear and probably non-existent.”

Authorities are also worried about the impact this could have on revenue if trips are shortened.

“If that happens then it will certainly have a direct, negative impact on the tourism industry as the length of time mountaineers stay will come down significantly,” Damber Parajuli, president of the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal, told BBC.

“Also, acclimatising on the mountains is the basic rule of mountaineering. If that is not done then authorities should not be giving them certificates certifying that they climbed the mountain.”

Nepal has issued permits to 468 people to Everest during the current March-May climbing season and more than 200 have already topped the summit so far.

It remains to be seen what steps the authorities will take, if any.

With inputs from agencies