A British minister was part of a record-breaking climbing party that reached the summit of Mount Everest in five days, Report informs referring to The Telegraph.
Al Carns, the veterans minister, was in a group of ex-British Special Forces soldiers who flew the Union flag on the summit on May 21.
An ascent usually takes around two months with traditional acclimatisation methods, but Carns and his team used xenon gas to help with their acclimatisation.
The 45-year-old Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak constituency, a Royal Marines Reserves colonel and former regular, who was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in Afghanistan, undertook the expedition with three other veterans with the aim of raising £1 million for forces charities.
At Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu after the climb, Carns told BirminghamLive he was “incredibly proud” after breaking the record for the fastest ascent of Everest without prior acclimatisation in the Himalayas.
The minister said the mountain was littered with bodies of those who have died attempting to conquer it, saying: “It brought it home, this was the death zone.”
Their achievement stunned the mountaineering world but has been criticised by the Nepalese government, which said it was not aware the team had used xenon gas to pre-acclimatise to the thin atmosphere on the mountain.
“We are investigating the travel agency and the climbers who used xenon gas for scaling Everest,” Narayan Prasad Regmi, Nepal’s tourism chief, told The Telegraph.
“We will summon them, including the British minister, and take action as deemed fit under the law,” he added.
He said xenon gas has never been used by climbers in Nepal, and that there was a need for a clear legislation on whether it should be banned.
“All climbers and expedition organisers are required to declare the substances and equipment they use,” Regmi said.
The expedition team maintains that it did not bring the gas into Nepal. The British team inhaled xenon at a clinic in Germany two weeks before the expedition to prevent altitude sickness. They also used hypoxic tents in Germany, which simulate the lack of oxygen at high altitude.
Some researchers claim xenon increases the production of a protein that fights hypoxia, a condition that occurs when the body cannot get enough oxygen.
Critics say xenon’s performance benefits are unproven, and that it could harm the tourist industry if its use becomes widespread because climbers would spend less time on the mountain.
Furtenbach Adventures, the Austria-based company that organised the climb, defended the use of the gas.
“Xenon improves acclimatisation, protects against altitude sickness and mitigates the effects of hypoxic environments,” Lukas Furtenbach, its founder, said.
“It makes the climb safer and shorter while ensuring climbers are properly acclimatised, unlike those who rely solely on oxygen from Base Camp without prior acclimatisation, which is extremely dangerous. There was no breach of any Nepali regulation. What happens outside Nepal should not be under the purview of the Nepal government.”
He went on to point out that shorter, xenon-aided expeditions had environmental benefits because they used fewer resources. To get used to thinner oxygen levels at high altitudes, climbers usually spend weeks going up and down between Base Camp and higher camps before making a push for the summit.