Hey, remember xenon? It’s on the periodic table where it goes by “Xe.” Right? Yeah it’s one of those whose symbol is actually an abbreviation of its name and not like “Au” or “K” which you’d never have any idea what the hell elements they stood for if you’ve never seen a periodic table before.

Anyway, the Everest Chronicle reports the element, which keeps a pretty low profile compared to the squeakier Helium and flashier Neon on the inert gases crew, is suddenly so hot among climbers as a performance enhancing gas. It’s also pretty controversial as the unofficial blog of the world’s tallest and deadliest (in absolute values) mountain writes that the use of it for rapid acclimation “has drawn scrutiny from medical experts and mountaineering organizations, who warn of insufficient evidence supporting its safety and efficacy at high altitudes. Despite this, climbers maintain their success so far demonstrates the potential of modern approaches to extreme altitude expeditions.”

The team of four British military vets – Garth Miller, Alastair Carns, Anthony Stazicker, and Kev Godlington – who inhaled a shit ton of xenon to more rapidly acclimate their bodies to higher altitudes – something that takes weeks normally – are probably still on their way up to the summit of Everest given that this article was printed on Wednesday. So either they’ll make it down or not.

Ever. Their bodies will be up there, frozen, forever if the xenon thing backfires on them.