this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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Why would recreational use matter just cause it's banned in competitive sports?
The author is clearly against using performance enhancing drugs. They point out that Xe is banned since it's probably not something the reader is familiar with, unlike steroids etc. In my opinion climbing Everest is already excessively commercialized and made available to underqualified people. It makes the mountain even more dangerous for the customers and guides. This new method claims to let people climb it many times faster if they just inhale some gas. So of course it will exacerbate the problem.
While this method is more costly than traditional means, it isn't by that much, but it does drastically reduce the time on mountain. Everest is notoriously crowded. Lowering time on the mountain could reduce those crowds which would be a positive effect for all climbers. I think we'll just have to wait and see how the chips fall, but I don't think there's enough info to just say that this makes it more accessible and thus more problems on the mountain.
Realistically it will increase the amount of people on the mountain by making it easier, and by a lot too.
How do you know that?
Because that almost always happens when things become more accessible than they used to be?
For these sort of people, taking a full financial quarter away from your executive job and high class social obligations it the real cost of the climb. If someone can offer the ability to do it in half the time theyll pay quite a bit for the convenience.