WADA banned Xenon

[joebartels]

They want to climb Everest in a week using an anesthetic gas.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/05/13/trav ... xenon-intl

[SpiderLegs]

I used to race bikes in the early 90's when the use of EPO skyrocketed in the professional cycling realm. Personally I wasn't a pro, but trained with guys that were and knew a couple of guys that rode in the Tour de France. Despite its dangers, anyway you can create extra EPO works. There is a reason EPO was the drug of choice for cyclists for at least a decade. Only downside is that EPO can often create too many red blood cells. For a season, some pro cyclists were dying of heart attacks while they slept because of their EPO use. Rather than stop using the drug, the solution was to set your alarm clock to wake you up every 2-3 hours so you could do a quick set of jumping jacks or jump rope to keep the blood flow going.

[Hansenaz]

@joebartels
Plus it gives you a really deep voice.

[Pivo]

I don't have a CNN subscription, here's the NYT artice on this adventure.

The prohibition of the gas by the World Anti-Doping Agency didn’t apply to mountaineering because it is not a regulated competitive sport.
Use of the gas gets at a core question about why people climb big hills in the first place, maybe just bagging every hill at speed means you miss out on the joy you could have had.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/worl ... =url-share

[chumley]

it is not a regulated competitive sport.

They've obviously never met anybody that posts on pb or St. John’s Wort!