Cheruiyot Kirui a Kenyan mountaineer is on a bold mission to attempt a summit of the Mt Everest without using supplemental oxygen.
According to Kirui who is a banker at KCB, he is using this quest to test the human body limits by climbing the highest mountain n without supplemental oxygen, making him the first African to do so.
"Climbing Everest has been done before. I think the only difference is what I'm trying to do, climbing without supplemental oxygen. That has not been done by any African. It's the tough way to climb Mt Everest. It is riskier than climbing with supplemental oxygen. The challenge for me would be without supplemental oxygen; otherwise, I wouldn't feel like I've achieved much. So I want to see how my body can cope in such altitude,” Kirui said
Kirui further explained the weight in the quest in terms of human body capability and chances to successfully summit Mt. Everest without Supplemental oxygen, revealing exactly what the latter is up for.
“The success rate of climbing without supplemental oxygen is less than 40%. Climbers who ascend higher than 8,000 metres on Mt. Everest enter the ‘death zone.’ In this area, oxygen is so limited that the body's cells start to die, and judgment becomes impaired. The idea is that when you are there, you get to the summit as fast as possible and then down before your body starts shutting down or dying,” Kirui stated
According to scientist, human body is incapable of surviving above 6000 metres, whereas at 8849 metres, Mt Everest summit has about one third air pressure at sea level significantly reducing a climber’s ability to breath in enough oxygen.
Kenyan Mountaineer Cheruiyot Kirui Takes On Mt. Everest Summit without Supplemental Oxygen