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
Update: 2018 Oxygen Failure on Everest – Regulator Recall
Followers of the Everest 2018 spring climbing season will recall that a few teams experienced a failure of their supplemental oxygen systems provided by the UK company, Summit Oxygen (SO). While alarming, to maintain a sense of perspective, it was 25 out of 500 to 1,000 that regulators failed, not a massive failure as some […]
Focus on Everest
Teams are all over Everest today, no some climbing; other stuck. High winds on both sides made progress difficult and sometimes impossible for some teams as they continue to push hard to avoid the impending weather. It is snowing at Base Camp on the south and the winds are pummeling the north side; stopping some […]