Everest 2023: Interview with Lukas Furtenbach – The Evolution of Oxygen Delivery Systems on Everest
Lukas Furtenbach, a major mountaineering expedition guide company and is now a top supplier of supplemental oxygen systems to all teams climbing Everest. He partnered with Neil Greenwood of Summit Oxygen to create Everest Oxygen focusing on supplying supplemental oxygen to the mountaineering industry.
His Austrian-based Furtenbach Adventures offer global climbs, including most of the 8000-meter mountains, the Seven Summits, the Volcanic Seven Summits, and Ski Mountaineering. However, they have made a name for themselves with their “Flash Expeditions,” which takes only three weeks to climb Everest, compared to the classic style, which takes six to eight weeks.
In this Podcast, we explore the evolution of using supplemental oxygen, Lukas’s approach and several other Everest topics. We cover:
2:24 – The Chinese closure of Everest for the past four years, and will they open in Autumn for 8000ers?
4:45 – Will COVID be a factor for Everest 2023?
5:55 – Furtenbach Adventures Carbon Neutral approach to mountaineering
10:02 – Climbing Everest in three weeks vs. six to eight weeks
11:35 – Pre-acclimatizing at home using altitude tents
22:13 – The history of altitude tents (In France in the late 1970s)
25:52 – Is using supplemental oxygen cheating?
29:54 – Everest Oxygen supplies systems to other teams
30:04 – Understanding the Oxygen Delivery System
30:37 – Oxygen Cylinders
31:43 – Oxygen Regulators
39:29 – Oxygen Masks
42:15 – System Reliability
45:15 – Sherpas using Oxygen
47:22 – Types of Delivery Systems
47:32 – Constant Flow
47:41 – Pulse Dose
49:41 – On Demand
52:14 – Remote Monitoring of a Climber’s Health
56:17 – Everest 2023 Predictions
Everest: 4 Weeks, Unlimited Oxygen, $117,000
For several years, I have been writing about the bifurcation of the Everest guiding business. In other words, the separation between the low-end operators and the high-end is growing larger each season. Now as we began to think about 2018, it is clear that Nepali operators like Seven Summits Treks are making huge inroads into the guiding business based primarily on catering to the Chinese and Indian middle classes with prices under $30K, lower than their direct competition. At the other end are Western companies like Alpenglow and Furtenbach around $100K price tags and long time operators like Alpine Ascents, Adventure Consultants and Himex asking for $65K and more. IMG and several Nepali companies like Asian Trekking are playing the middle game with prices in the mid $40K’s. However, there is something fascinating happening as the ultra high-end companies are targeting the uber rich who want to minimize time climbing in pursuit of a sport called mountaineering. In other words – peak bagging in its purist form. Bragging Rights Everyone knows that high altitude mountain climbing is more popular than ever. Each year, it seems that records are set on the world’s highest peaks both for summits as well as for deaths. And the guide services are capitalizing on this popularity with more climbs and more offerings. To some degree mountain climbing has always been about bragging rights. If you go to a party and say you summited Everest, some people will “oh and ah” and want to hear all the details. Others upon hearing you summited the world’s highest peak will poke at you and ask “That’s nice, but did you use a guide and did Sherpas haul you to the top?” And then the guy with a six-pack in him after just arriving will mutter almost incoherently “Yeah, and did you use oxygen?” Drawing out the ‘o’ in oxygen like it was his last breath! Everest climbers have gotten use to this hazing and most shrug it off but a new benchmark is emerging and soon the next question will be “So, how long did it take you? My friend Bob summited Everest last year in less than 4 weeks.” More Money, Less Time Austrian guide Lukas Furtenbach is heavily marketing his so-called “Flash Climbs” advertising that his members can summit Everest in four weeks. He boasts on his Furtenbach Adventuires website: Time is a valuable commodity. We are about to change the fundamentals of high-mountain expeditions. Mount Everest in less than 4 weeks! While a regular Everest expedition can require almost two months, our Everest Flash expedition takes only 4 weeks while increasing safety and chances of success. Lukas charges €95,000 price tag – $117,000 at current rates – the absolute highest price from any company for a team climb. It may be the “Maybach” of Everest climbing. Lukas is not alone, the Snapchat kid, Adrian Ballinger, also promotes his “Rapid Ascent” climbs all over the world arguing that: … we have refined and distilled the acclimatization and climbing process to maximize safety, health, success, and enjoyment. Oh, and he charges $85,000 per member, well over twice what other’s charge for an Everest climb from Tibet. More Oxygen – Before and During The key to both of these programs is the use of generous oxygen while climbing and altitude tents to “pre-acclimitze” in the convenience of your home weeks and months before the climb. In theory, you arrive at base camp already acclimatized to maybe 17,000 feet or 5,000 meters – Lukas claims even higher. Most longtime guides sniff dismissively at the use of altitude tents to pre-acclimitze. Jagged Globe’s Managing Director, Simone Lowe calls the entire approach “Complete bloody hogwash”. Russell Brice, famed leader of Himex, Russell Brice, used the term “snake oil” and told me recently: Yes I do think you can cheat acclimatisation by moving fast up and down, but this is extremely risky as if anything goes wrong and you are delayed then there is a high risk of dying. This should only be done by people who have already experienced high altitude before, so as they have an idea as to how they normally perform at altitude, and can therefore make an educated decision about how they feel. One needs to be very fit and strong and have a very well thought through plan…..but also fully understand the risks involved. I would suggest that there are only a few people that are capable of this in the climbing community. So to date there have only been a few people who have proven that the use of hyperbaric tent, fast ascent actually works, and there have been many failures, so it is early days. I have yet to see any scientific evidence that suggests that this is safe, it seems to me to be more of a commercial promotion. One of the issues not addressed by this approach is that while it may shorten the upfront time in acclimatizing, there is not much you can do about the vagaries of weather and delays that add time to the back end. You may arrive a couple of weeks later than your teammates but still end up waiting at base camp for a week or more for safe summit weather, thus being exposed to the same risks as those who climbed the old fashion way. I did an extensive article on this a few years ago including interviews with world-renowned high altitude doctor, Peter Hackett who also runs the excellent site Institute for High Altitude Medicine and Brian Oestrike, CEO of Hypoxico, the industry leader in these tents. My conclusion was that it can be effective but not a replacement for old fashion acclimatization techniques. OK, with my clear bias that these commercial speed climbs are simply a circus side show filled with tempting marketing that tricks members into spending tens of thousands more than is needed with similar results as the old -school, I invited Lukas to have a good spirited debate with me. Grab a