Time Spent On The Mountain -- Summiting Everest

"[There exists no evidence that xenon gas improves performance]; inappropriate use can be dangerous."

"Use without a scientific basis and with unknown health risks must be rejected." 

International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation

 

"So, what these people claim to have done is basically found a way to switch on the adaptation [of xenon gas] to low oxygen levels."

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

Hugh Montgomery, professor of intensive care medicine, University College London 

 

"It [use of xenon gas to speed up ascents] is a provocation, especially for traditional mountaineers, who feel bad about this idea that you can climb Everest in less than a week."

"This May demonstration with four Brits, acclimatized prior to ascent] showed that it can work."

Lukas Furtenbach, expedition organizer 

Four British climbers pose on the summit of Mount Everest in Nepal. The mountain guide who arranged their trek said he and the team had inhaled xenon gas in Germany before embarking on the expedition where they reached the 8,848 metre peak of Everest less than five days after departing London. (Sandro Gromen/The Associated Press)

 

There are traditions born of necessity in acknowledging nature's supreme challenges and the logical physiological steps that must be undertaken in preparatory work to meet those challenges. And aspirants to ascend Mount Everest know that to achieve the summit, careful adherence to tried-and-true methods although not guaranteeing success, go a long way to improving opportunities. So to climb Mount Everest acclimatization time must be set aside to optimum success, which translates to weeks spent at base camp to allow one's body to familiarize itself with less oxygen than is normal at lower elevations.

 

From base camp, a slow progression to a number of camps, each where time is spent to enable the body to adjust to ever thinner atmospheres where oxygen is gradually diminished, until the final camp closest to the summit is reached, before the final push on to the summit. Most climbers as well make use of supplemental oxygen to enable them to fully adjust to conditions. In May of this year, an expedition of four men traveled from London to Everest, on to the summit and back in under a week. 

 

Research established that xenon gas can effectively acclimatize people to high altitudes, but on the other hand, there are some experts who feel benefits if any, are negligible, and it is as yet unknown what the use of the gas's side effects might be. According to Lukas Furtenbach, who organized the expedition, he has plans to offer two-week round-trip excursions to Mount Everest with the use of xenon gas, to cut typical time required to scale the mountain by several weeks' time.

 

A long line of mountain climbers wait just below camp four, the final camp before the summit push on Mount Everest in Nepal on May 22, 2019. Eleven people died on Everest during that year's climbing season. (Rizza Alee/The Associated Press)

 

The need to take the time to acclimatize is to ensure the prevention of altitude sickness, whose symptoms include nausea, headaches, disrupted sleep, physical decline and the threat of potential swelling of the brain that can lead to death. The higher one climbs, the less oxygen is absorbed into the bloodstream. Which explains the common conventional use of supplemental oxygen. 

 

Some doctors have made use of the gas to 'precondition' patients to low oxygen levels prior to surgery but  because "it hasn't been as protective as one would hope", its use for that purpose has been limited, according to Professor Montgomery, at University College London, himself a mountaineer. Xenon gas is similar to the use of anesthesia; its use could lead to overdose or death according to some experts.

 

The reason for the tradition of weeks of training and acclimation on the slopes of Everest on the mountain's lower levels is an accepted practice understood to be typically required in the avoidance of unwanted complications and survival in the area above 7,925 meters on Everest, known as the 'death zone'. 

 

Akash Negi sits in a hypoxic tent set up in his New Jersey living room in April 2021. Mountaineers use the low-oxygen tents, which mimic thin air at high altitudes, to prepare themselves for the atmosphere they'll experience while climbing Mount Everest. ( Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images )

 

Weeks before launching themselves on the expedition the British group began sleeping in hypoxic tents to lower oxygen levels in the air to gradually acclimatize themselves to conditions on Mount Everest. Several weeks prior to the excursion they flew to Limburg, Germany where a doctor who had experimented with inhaled gases in his clinic supervised the men hooked up to ventilators while an anesthesiologist gradually introduced higher levels of xenon into their systems. 

 

Once arrived at the Everest base camp, the group ascended to the summit in less than three days. The Nepalese government's response to the group's use of gas leading to their rapid ascent was less than congratulatory.  Himal Gautam, director of Nepal's tourism department declared that using the gas was "against climbing ethics", that it would harm the tourism industry and the Sherpas who guide and assist climbers.

 

The response was that Mr. Furtenbach argued his expeditions were still making use of Sherpas, and shorter times on the mountain were safer, reducing the chance that climbers would be exposed to other health threats, including avalanches, hypothermia or falls. An argument that is questionable in its presumed merits, since accelerating the time to achieve the goal also means pushing on beyond normal endurance to meet the shorter time schedule, and as for avalanches, hypothermia or falls, they occur irrespective of time spend on the mountain.  

"[Making the mountain easier to summit, will likely attract more climbers], exacerbating the already serious overcrowding problem."

 "It just seems very, very risky at this onset, right at the beginning. It's really hard for me to think about ... using  a new type of technique. What type of safety protocol is involved with that?"

"You're not training the traditional way of being on the mountain for a month and a half, two months to acclimatize in the natural environment."

Chris Dare, Canadian Mountaineer  

Rob Casserley was among a team of climbers who survived avalanches on Mount Everest in 2015 that were caused by earthquakes in Nepal. He says climbers who aren't prepared for the psychological aspect of scaling the mountain could endanger themselves and others. (Rob Casserley/Facebook)

 

Extreme Sports : Rare But Extreme Landings

"I'm heartbroken, because we never got to go on our Bali trip together like we always talked about, but also at an eerie ease knowing that you finally got your answer as to what an afterlife looks like."

"You were one in a million and went out like a one in a million would..."

"Wait for me on the other side."

"She was one of the bravest girls I ever had the chance of meeting and seeing her reach such a big audience in her last years of life, talking about things she genuinely cared about and loved was truly amazing."

Kimia Sepanlou, Instagram post

"It's like any other thing that we do in life, you know, whether you're mountain biking or driving race cars or water-skiing. I mean, there's always an inherent risk with what you do."

"When  you look back 20, 30 years ago, at the injuries and fatalities, and then you look a what's happening now, it's a difference of night and day [extreme sports' improved safety record]."

"It's the thrill, the excitement. Some people climb mountains, some people slackline or highline."

"You know, some people hang glide. We skydive."

Rob McNeill, member technical safety committee, Canadian Sport Parachuting Association

Wisconsin Sky Diving Center

 

A 21-year-old philosophy student at University of Toronto, and TikTok influencer, Tanya Pardazi, last weekend fell to her death during a skydiving accident. This summer in Canada there have been at least four such fatal accidents, hers being the fourth to date. All of those accidents have taken place over a period of only three months. Three of those deaths took place in Ontario; in Niagara region a woman died in an "extreme fall" in July.

A search through news reports indicates that a similar number of sky diving deaths took place in 2021 as well. In Tanya Pardazi's case, an emergency during her jump led to her death; she attempted opening her parachute when she had already reached an altitude too low for safety, leaving insufficient time for the reserve chute to be deployed.

Fatalities resulting from skydiving are rare. The U.S. Parachute Association estimates 0.39 deaths per 100,000 jumps in the high-risk sport. Out of 1.5 million jumpers in 42 countries, according to the safety committee of the International Skydiving Commission in a 2018 report, 44 fatalities occurred that year; one the result of a tandem jump,\: two people jumping together, one of the two an expert.

According to the report, 61 percent of jump fatalities took place with "expert" skydivers, and just nine percent were students. "This not young novices and beginning jumpers getting hurt anymore. It's the experienced people", noted Rob MacNeill. Statistics verify that 68 percent of fatalities occurred as a result of human error.

Jeffrey Dean, 45, and a firefighter -- an accomplished skydiver with over 4,000 jumps to his credit -- died attempting an advanced manouvre. He was considered an "icon" in the skydiving community. What led to his death was not malfunctioning equipment; he died on landing. "[Dean] deployed [his] parachute without incident. The parachute was fully functioning, working correctly.

"Fatal injuries were sustained during the landing process following an advanced parachute manoeuvre", read a statement from Parachute Ottawa, the skydiving company Dean was jumping with at the time. The International Skydiving Commission feels of the 44 deaths, a dozen were related to landing issues, either intentionally fast landings or another type of error in landing.

Another six occurred resulting from a free-fall collision, an additional six from a medical issue, and five the result of equipment entanglement. Other identified causes such as a death from a reserve chute failing to deploy, one drowning death, and one collision with an aircraft.

"[86 percent of skydiving deaths were because of human error; jumping from an airplane, skydiving is an] inherently dangerous activity."

"The mishaps typically stem from using incorrect emergency procedures, failing to deploy the parachute at a reasonable altitude, landing errors, and mid-air collisions."

"Skydivers must often act under extreme time pressure while experiencing a state of high anxiety and arousal. These factors are known to contribute to human error in other domains."

Paper, Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

“The reality is that the vast majority of skydiving accidents are a result of simple human error,” the United States Parachute Association says on its website. Photo by iStock/Getty Images

But ... Why?

Steven Jackson finished the race March 7

"I was trying to get things into muscle memory."

"Most races I've done, the physical aspect is uppermost, followed by the mental aspect. This race was mental first, with some luck, followed by physical."

"You have to resign yourself to knowing you're going to experience a severe sense of delirium, discombobulation and hallucinations throughout. It's a guarantee."

"You're shocked that your brain is doing this and, the further into the race I went, the more vivid the hallucinations became."

"I would stop and yell at them [hallucinatory appearance of animals], just to make sure, but, at some point, you just give up and walk up to it and it's just the road. There's noting there."

"I had touched both oceans and been to Nunavut. This [race experience] seemed like a good way to touch the third ocean."

"There was nothing up here any more [in his head]. Real life wasn't real anymore. My dreams were. They were more vivid, more realistic. It was before 5 a.m. and I thought I was there in Tuktoyaktuk."

"It was so isolating, a dread."

Steven Jackson, 25, Orleans, ultra-marathoner

Not many people will have heard of the 6633 Arctic Ultra marathon named for the 66'33" Arctic Circle latitude. Steven Jackson certainly had, and not surprisingly, given his interests in such super-race events requiring contestants to brave harsh winter elements, solitude and extreme fatigue, hoping to endure the physical and mental stress they would encounter as seasoned marathoners, to be among those few who would somehow find the stamina and determination to complete the marathon.

This is an event that has a dozen years behind it, considered the third-most difficult foot race in the world with 215 hours allotted (approximately nine days) to complete the trek of 617 kilometres from Eagle Plains, Yukon to Tuktoyaktuk, North-West Territories. All gear and food must be hauled by the contestants who must be prepared to tough out sub-zero temperatures plunging at times, with wind chill accounted, to -60C. The completion date of the 2020 race was March 7, and Mr. Jackson was one of two to complete the trek to the Arctic Ocean.

The 6633 Arctic Ultra runs from Eagle Plains, Yukon to Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T, including this section runs along the Peel River. According to the race website, only 37 people have finished the long race in 10 years. (Submitted by 6633 Arctic Ultra)

With the use of a wheeled toboggan Mr. Jackson trained beforehand by pulling its freighted weight for roughly 1,000 km before flying off to begin the race in late February. He practised packing and unpacking his kit ensuring he knew precisely where everything was to be found. As a reservist in the Canadian Forces he had previous experience in other endurance tests; the 50-km Iron Warrior race in Petawawa, the 100-km Ultramarathon in Gatineau Park, and the 160-km Nijmegen four-day march in Holland. In this race, like none other, he managed a mere 17-1/2 hours of sleep for the duration of the race's nine days.

When Day 8 rolled around, night shadows of tracks in the road were transformed by moonlight into animals; white forces, caribou, elk and moose and then wolves and polar bears within a 100-metre patch. Rationally he was aware they hadn't really materialized, yet his confidence had been shaken. He had envisioned the race as an opportunity to see the Yukon and Northwest Territories, aside from the allure of the competition. "It was an expensive race", he said recounting the $7,500 entry fee, his flight, food and equipment, inclusive of a $1,400 sleeping bag.

Steven Jackson in the 6633 Ultra Arctic marathon. (Photo: Weronika Murray)

On Day 7 he had happened to encounter an accident, a vehicle that had driven off the side of the road into a ditch. He helped to dig the vehicle out, re-hooked himself to his sled, then approaching where he had left his ski poles felt convinced he was prepared to turn in the wrong direction; righted himself and started south for an hour, losing five kilometres before he pulled out his compass to realize his error. So he turned around and went north for an additional hour.

Missing the checkpoint, he turned himself around again. "I second-guessed myself again, and again, and again. the compass didn't matter anymore. I didn't believe the compass, and so I was doing five kilomeres in the same spot, over and over and over again. I don't know how many times I did it. I'm panicking because I believe I'm lost, and the compass isn't doing anything for me because I don't even believe in it at this point. That was a problem."

In his favour was the fact that race officials checked in with competitors twice daily. Three times fortunate visit timing saw officials in Inuvik intervene, finding him walking in circles in an intersection. On another occasion a slight 30 km from the finish line, he had convinced himself that  he had finished the race, released the harness on his toboggan and walked up a hill without it, convinced the race was over.

He spoke later of having experienced an "existential" loneliness, particularly when he discovered that other competitors were forced from the race by frostbite or other injuries of some nature. Only he and one other runner remained in the race by Day 6. On Friday, Australian Grant Maughan had completed the race, and Mr. Jackson had the impression he was all alone. There was 55 minutes left to go by the time he finished the race, just under the deadline.

"Normally when something traumatic happens, you go to the hospital or you go home and remake yourself, but in this case you had to do it while still walking. It was life-changing, especially seeing my own strengths, my core values, turning against me, that everything I had experienced in my life so far was not going to be enough to get me through this race."

"There's a big part of me, a part of my soul, that I left out on that ice. You don't come back as a full person. You're changed. Who I was when I went in is not the same person that came back. But I haven't been this happy in a long time. I had a smile on my face from beginning to end, no matter how hard things got."

Steven Jackson competing in the 6633 Ultra Arctic marathon earlier this year. WERONIKA MURRAY /

 Risking Death for Pleasure

"We are living in a virtual, confused, hyper-technological, postmodern world where we're all looking for real experiences."
Orin Starn, professor, Duke University, North Carolina

"You are 100 percent in the moment, hyper-aware of everything and focused on just that job and nothing else."
"It's addictive, that feeling of fear and the reward when you control your fear and land safe. And then you want to go up, like, right away and do it again."
"It's a way for people to burn away these worries about the world that occupy their mind."
"It gives you this rush and that rush makes you feel like you are alive and free and the happiness is that moment makes you think, 'Well, I don't mind if I don't have any more days of life because what I just did, it was so good, I could die right now'."
Carlos Pedro Briceno, 43, DeLand Florida

Hang Gliding

"Efforts to eliminate risk are an obsession in the Western World. We have to make playgrounds and public spaces perfectly safe and there's all this litigation around physical and mental injuries in relation to all kinds of activities."
"That sterile environment is frustrating and makes people crave stimulation and excitement."
Dr. Erik Monasterio, psychiatrist, University of Otago, New Zealand

Carlos Briceno is, if not addicted, then certainly strenuously inclined toward his passion, the sport of wingsuit proximity flying. He is so inclined to repeat the wonderfully pleasurable feeling that overcomes his senses that he is prepared to do that, and little else, making this leisure pursuit the purpose of his life. Assuredly the landscape he is drawn to is majestic and awe-inspiring; not just to view and to indulge in summitting impossible mountain heights but leaping off them.

And nor are other landscape prominences, natural or manmade ignored, cellphone towers would do as well, and the opportunity to glide close to geological massifs and cliffs, challenging and tempting fate adds to the emotions that pervade his senses; fear, ecstasy, triumph. You use the skills you have acquired, and you know that your fortitude, energy and fortune will dictate in the final analysis whether you will have the opportunity to repeat that triumph, or whether circumstances you can no longer control triumph.

You skirt danger and you deploy that parachute. Or not. All the same. The glory is experienced, and sometimes the penalty.

Delaware North, a company managing event concessions commissioned a market analysis that concluded extreme sport participation now demands a larger slice of the personal sport market than conventional types. By 2020, according to the company's forecast, extreme sports will present a challenge to professional and collegiate sports, rating as the most audience-enrapturing category of sports content. Video uploaded constantly to the Internet that leaves viewers agape is partially responsible.

The world's premier jumping, diving, surfing and climbing hotspots located in Switzerland, France, Norway, Australia, Nepal and Brazil have seen a notable increase in destination travel for a singular purpose. The question of why it is and who it is that is attracted to these extreme sports has puzzled psychologists wanting to categorize and group people into neat little challenge boxes. Theories include a genetic predisposition to risk-taking, psycho-pathology involvement, even chemical imbalances (as in low levels of neurotransmitter dopamine) to explain the irresistibility to some.

All of which may play a role in attracting people to extreme sports, but the picture still lacks completion. Research tends to suggest that extreme-sports enthusiasts come from various backgrounds, have diverse biological characteristics and personalities, so all together these variants and propensities may represent as good a sketch of the types that are draw to thrills and dangers as any. And then there are those analysts who feel cultural and sociological factors rate as additional motivators.

As for people like Carlos Pedro Briceno, driven to their sport, just as mountain climbers are driven to theirs, he found his inspiration by viewing YouTube videos of others experiencing first parachuting and then proximity flying. He was a star, alongside his friend Alexander Polli, 32, in a proximity flying (BASE jumping) film released in 2017. The year before that Mr. Polli died, clipping a tree during a proximity flight, following on the death of another base jumper who had crashed into a granite rock formation in Yosemite National Park the year before that.


Despite which, experts maintain that the guiding motivation of adventurous spirits is the wish to feel alive, not a desire to court death. They are committed to channelling their energies and their spirit into an experience that enlivens them, allows them to have experiences that can only be achieved by setting aside concerns for safety. And in so doing, and undergoing that incomparable experience and living to repeat it again and again they find purpose in their lives.


B.A.S.E. JUMPING
BASE jumping is without doubt an extreme sport which uses a parachute to jump from a fixed position. There are 4 categories of fixed object -
Building
Antenna (an uninhabited tower such as an aerial mast),
Span (a bridge, arch or dome),
Earth (a cliff or other natural formation)
- hence the name.