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They used Xenon to climb Everest in days – is it the future of mountaineering?

nytimes.com

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Re: They used Xenon to climb Everest in days – is it the future of mountaineering?

#191

Post by mattmaroon »

toss1 wrote: post #184
mattmaroon wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s some really solid PR work on his part if true, but if he is scaling (pun intended) tours that actually do manage to summit Everest in significantly decreased time, I would say that it’s strong evidence that Xenon actually works and the science just hasn’t caught up to it yet. Unless he has found some other clever way that he is for some reason pretending is Xenon.

He is primarily selling the Placebo Effect. All kinds of fancy "research" and "reasons" it will work, and the marks\\\\customers put in a financial and emotional investment in it working, so expect it to work. Seems just about how placebos work best

This is more of a Dumbo’s feather than a placebo effect, but in either case, it’s hard to imagine he is getting people up the mountain in significantly the last time with it.

Re: They used Xenon to climb Everest in days – is it the future of mountaineering?

#192

Post by TechDebtDevin »

exhilaration wrote: post #124
TechDebtDevin wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think theres more to it than just ego. I find myself watching Everest videos on Youtube (shout out Michael Tracy's channel). Ive never done mountaineering but I become fascinated by these stories of people on the mountain and sometimes wonder if I could do it. I definately never will, theres lots of other things id rather invest my time in but I can definately see the allure and why people become obsessed with doin…

If you're interested in Everest, I loved Into Thin Air , by Jon Krakauer - it's absolutely fantastic and available on Audible. Then last week I discovered Everest on Netflix, which isn't great but it's based on the book and they do a good job showing you the route and distances between the camps with CGI. Anyways, after all that I have zero desire to ever go near Everest or any other risky mountain climb.

The yt channel I mentioned (link below), is half dedicated to speculating ifMallory and Irvine first summiited everest in the 24' expedition and the other half is dedicated to proving that Krakauer is lying in his book. Michael Tracy is some lawyer that really doesn't like Krakauer's account of 1996 and has some interesting points, I recommend you check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/@michaeltracy2356

Re: They used Xenon to climb Everest in days – is it the future of mountaineering?

#193

Post by osigurdson »

croes wrote: post #187
osigurdson wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Search your feelings, you just think mountain climbing is dumb / invalid and whatever activities that you like are valid. Let people do what they want. If Nepal wants to further restrict quotas, they can do so.

I have no feelings about climbing but feelings against environmental pollution. Climb as much as you like but clean up the waste you create.

I don't climb at all but I do care a lot about people getting to do what they want with their lives.

Re: They used Xenon to climb Everest in days – is it the future of mountaineering?

#194

Post by lesuorac »

hermitcrab wrote: post #188
lesuorac wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they? I thought nowadays the sherpas practically carry you up there so it's of low risk to you. Both wikipedia [1] and an expedition company [2] seem to put the deaths per year as [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_died_climbi... [2]: https://www.climbing-kilimanjaro.com/mount-everest-deaths/

"The percentage of deaths to successful attempts is around 4%." 4% chance of death sounds very high to me.

I mean, pick a dangerous surgery with a high death %. It's still safe to be the surgeon in that case.

The people dieing are by far the sherpas which you aren't one of.

Re: They used Xenon to climb Everest in days – is it the future of mountaineering?

#195

Post by robertlagrant »

nssnsjsjsjs wrote: post #62
robertlagrant wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but they did it ahead of time in a controlled way.

In a hospital with an anaesthesiologist?

> In a hospital with an anaesthesiologist?

Well, from the article:

> The men wore masks hooked up to ventilators as an anesthesiologist slowly introduced higher levels of xenon into their systems.

The doctor named in the article seems to be[0] the head of the Department of Anesthesiology at Limburg hospital.

[0] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael-Fries-3

Re: They used Xenon to climb Everest in days – is it the future of mountaineering?

#196

Post by hermitcrab »

lesuorac wrote: post #194
hermitcrab wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The percentage of deaths to successful attempts is around 4%." 4% chance of death sounds very high to me.

I mean, pick a dangerous surgery with a high death %. It's still safe to be the surgeon in that case. The people dieing are by far the sherpas which you aren't one of.

>The people dieing are by far the sherpas

Not according to this graph:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_died_climbi...

Re: They used Xenon to climb Everest in days – is it the future of mountaineering?

#197

Post by croes »

osigurdson wrote: post #193
croes wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no feelings about climbing but feelings against environmental pollution. Climb as much as you like but clean up the waste you create.

I don't climb at all but I do care a lot about people getting to do what they want with their lives.

Dis you read my link?

What about the Nepalese people?

They want to do something other than clean up the tourists' mess or even their bodies.

What about other climbers and their staff who get endangered.

Do you also care for allowing people driving drunk?

Re: They used Xenon to climb Everest in days – is it the future of mountaineering?

#198

Post by osigurdson »

croes wrote: post #197
osigurdson wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't climb at all but I do care a lot about people getting to do what they want with their lives.

Dis you read my link? What about the Nepalese people? They want to do something other than clean up the tourists' mess or even their bodies. What about other climbers and their staff who get endangered. Do you also care for allowing people driving drunk?

Yes, fully agree that the Nepalese people should be able to do what they want as well. If that means closing their country to tourists, that is fine. However, they aren't doing that so presumably they are doing what they want. Based on the link that you provided they have made some changes. I don't see any relationship to drunk driving here.

I suspect you are un-conflicted in the sense that you aren't simultaneously compelled to climb Everest but are holding back due to the environment impact. Staying home or going to the movies might be fine for you but not necessarily everyone else. If you do travel / do other things you probably don't worry about the environment impact much - because you are doing "valid" stuff that you happen to like.

Re: They used Xenon to climb Everest in days – is it the future of mountaineering?

#199

Post by philipallstar »

itsanaccount wrote: post #105
philipallstar wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And then you wonder why so many young people flirt with communism or want to see the capitalist system burn to the ground That's not why, particularly. They do so for various reasons: - they compare the reality of capitalism with a nonexistent nirvana, rather than the reality of the alternatives. They haven't run the real counterfactual - they gravitate to any philosophy that they're familiar with instinctively: mo…

Capitalism is undeniably useful, in some cases but so is a horse. Yet theres a difference between hitching a horse to a wagon to move things vs joining a bestiality cult that worships horses. A university is hardly the only place for terrible ideas to thrive, just look at silicon valley culture and this orange site.

> just look at silicon valley culture

Well, that is a similar place. If you have plenty of money sloshing about coming from some commercial process you probably disagree with, whether you're a SV day-in-the-life-of employee or a social sciences professor, you probably can have plenty of ideas that are never disproven because you're so insulated.

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