SCALING OF MOUNT EVEREST INHALING XENON

 Hugh Montgomery, Professor at University College, London raises a few questions.

Is it really a good idea that we can have all we want, when we want, as quick as we want?

Are we missing out on the sacrifice you sometimes have to make to get the achievement?

Maybe just bagging every hill at speed means you miss out on the joy you could have had?

Montgomery is a mountaneer who led an expedition to study how humans respond to low oxygen.

He was refering to the scaling of Mount Everest in less a than week by four British men after inhaling Xenon,  skipping the adjustment period that takes weeks for acclimating to thin air.

Xenon, an odourless gas, has been known to activate a molecule called the hypoxia inducible factor, which is turned on when people acclimate to low oxygen.

Excerpts from Times of India 28 May 2025