Everest on speed, UK guide promises summit in 42 days

Raise your game, skip the queues and scale the world's highest peak in 42 days: that's British guide Adrian Ballinger's ambitious pitch to climbers preparing to summit Mount Everest.
Ballinger's "Rapid Ascent" programme, which at around $79,000 is roughly double the cost of other Everest expeditions, aims to overturn the conventional wisdom that it takes 10 weeks to reach the top of the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) peak.
"The best way to climb Everest is to do it fast -- spend less time hanging around at base camp and avoid the queues as you approach the summit," Ballinger told AFP from his home in Squaw Valley, California.
The 38-year-old plans to slash the time spent acclimatising to high altitude by requiring clients to sleep in special hypoxic, or low-oxygen, tents for eight weeks before they go.
Nitrogen is pumped into the sealed tent to recreate a high-altitude environment by reducing oxygen levels so the body adapts to thinner air.