How a group of mountaineers scaled Mount Everest in one week

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published May 29, 2025 at 10:47 AM CDT

Mountaineers form a queue as they approach the summit of Mount Everest in Nepal, May 18, 2025. (Kunga Sherpa/AP)

Here & Now‘s Scott Tong speaks with mountaineer and Everest chronicler Alan Arnette about this year’s climbing season on Mount Everest. For the first time, a team of British climbers used xenon gas to decrease the 6 to 8 weeks usually needed to acclimate to the thin air on the world’s highest mountain. They traveled there, climbed the mountain, and returned home within a week.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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