Episode 58 brings the Duffel Shuffle audience back to the top story from the 2025 Everest Season. While both Sam and Adrian have been skeptical of the use of Xenon Gas that made headlines last season, the two sit down with Garth Miller, a UK-based airline captain and former British Army officer. 

In 2025, Garth was part of a four-person team that pulled off a London-to-London ascent of Everest in just 6.5 days, attributing their success and safety margin to the use of Xenon Gas. The conversation opened Sam and Adrian's own thinking on the substance and hearing the details behind their adventure connected some dots that had been left out in most of the media coverage surrounding their climb. 

• Garth first attempted Everest in 2004, turning back near the Second Step after a failed oxygen system caused repeated panic attacks. He returned in 2022, summiting Everest and Lhotse in a 21-day push
• In 2025 he joined a Furtenbach Adventures expedition with three other former British special forces members, training with 550–650 hours of pre-acclimatization before a single 25-minute Xenon exposure in Germany two weeks out
• The team framed Xenon as a safety tool for its neuroprotective and cardiopulmonary properties, not a performance enhancer, and pushes back on media narratives conflating it with doping
• Garth points out that other altitude aids already in common use — Diamox, dexamethasone — are also WADA-banned substances, complicating the "cheating" framing Xenon received
• They summited together after weathering a serious storm below the South Summit that sent much of their Sherpa team back down, and were caught in a Khumbu Icefall avalanche on the way up
• Garth sees client experience-vetting, not crowding, as the bigger lever for Everest safety, and notes the team raised over $500,000 for veterans' charities including Scotty's Little Soldiers

Follow us on Instagram @duffelshufflepodcast and visit www.duffelshufflepodcast.com to join our mailing list.

The Duffel Shuffle Podcast is supported by Alpenglow Expeditions, an internationally renowned mountain guide service based in Lake Tahoe, California. Visit www.alpenglowexpeditions.com or follow @alpenglowexpeditions on Instagram.