YouTuber Spanian rescued after severe altitude sickness during Mount Everest trip
In a June 2025 video, the 38-year-old revealed he had flown to the Himalayas without proper acclimatization or training, aiming to see Mount Everest firsthand. Instead of the traditional gradual ascent used to prevent altitude-related complications, Spanian took a helicopter straight to the Everest View Hotel—located at approximately 3,000 meters above sea level.
Almost immediately upon arrival, the YouTuber began to suffer from classic symptoms of altitude sickness, including dizziness, shortness of breath, and extreme cold. 'I can't breathe properly, my head hurts, and I'm freezing,' Spanian said, adding that he even experienced a panic attack while trying to record a voice message to his staff.
His oxygen saturation level was later measured at just 83%, significantly below healthy levels, prompting an emergency evacuation back down the mountain.
'I almost passed out,' Spanian recalled. 'I was going into some sort of collapse.'
Spanian's harrowing experience adds to a growing list of influencers who have underestimated the dangers of Everest. In 2024, French YouTuber Inoxtag disappeared for six months while preparing for a successful summit attempt.
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Express Tribune
21 hours ago
- Express Tribune
YouTuber Spanian rescued after severe altitude sickness during Mount Everest trip
Australian YouTuber Spanian was rescued by helicopter after experiencing extreme altitude sickness during a spontaneous trip to Mount Everest, according to a report by Dexerto. In a June 2025 video, the 38-year-old revealed he had flown to the Himalayas without proper acclimatization or training, aiming to see Mount Everest firsthand. Instead of the traditional gradual ascent used to prevent altitude-related complications, Spanian took a helicopter straight to the Everest View Hotel—located at approximately 3,000 meters above sea level. Almost immediately upon arrival, the YouTuber began to suffer from classic symptoms of altitude sickness, including dizziness, shortness of breath, and extreme cold. 'I can't breathe properly, my head hurts, and I'm freezing,' Spanian said, adding that he even experienced a panic attack while trying to record a voice message to his staff. His oxygen saturation level was later measured at just 83%, significantly below healthy levels, prompting an emergency evacuation back down the mountain. 'I almost passed out,' Spanian recalled. 'I was going into some sort of collapse.' Spanian's harrowing experience adds to a growing list of influencers who have underestimated the dangers of Everest. In 2024, French YouTuber Inoxtag disappeared for six months while preparing for a successful summit attempt.
Express Tribune
2 days ago
- Express Tribune
France imposes smoking ban on beaches, parks
Anyone who lights up on a beach or in a public park in France will be breaking the law from Sunday under new rules aimed at protecting children from the dangers of passive smoking. Bus shelters and areas in the immediate vicinity of libraries, swimming pools and schools will also be affected by the ban, which is coming into force one day after its publication in the official government gazette on Saturday. The rule is being imposed one week before the beginning of the school holidays in France in a clear bid to immediately protect children from smoke on the beach. However, to the disappointment of some anti-tobacco activists, the ban does not cover the terraces of bars and restaurants where many French still happily light up. They are also unhappy that the ban does not apply to electronic cigarettes. The rules had initially been expected to come into force on Tuesday after a previous announcement by the health ministry but the publication in the official gazette means this has now been brought forward to Sunday. People should also not smoke within a 10 metres radius of schools, swimming pools, libraries and other places that hurt minors. The health ministry said it would announce the minimum distance for smoking in these areas in the coming days as well as reveal the sign used to designate such areas. Violators of the ban could face a fine of 135 euros ($160) up to a maximum of 700 euros. However the health ministry is expecting an initial grace period as the new rules are explained. "Tobacco must disappear from places where there are children. A park, a beach, a school -- these are places to play, learn, and breathe. Not for smoking," Health and Family Minister Catherine Vautrin said. This is another step "towards a tobacco-free generation", she added, which France is targeting from 2032. The ban "is a step in the right direction, but remains insufficient," said Yves Martinet, president of the National Committee Against Smoking (CNCT), criticising the continued permission to smoke on cafe terraces. "The minister points to the protection of children," but children "also go to the terraces," Martinet, a pulmonologist, said. He lamented the absence of e-cigarettes from the text, saying flavours are used to "hook young people". "For a measure to be effective, it must be clear -- no consumption of products containing tobacco or nicotine in public," Martinet said. But Frank Delvau, president of the Union of Hotel Trades and Industries (UMIH) for the Paris region, said a ban on smoking on cafe terraces "would only shift the problem because people on terraces would go smoke next to these establishments". "Smokers and non-smokers can coexist" on terraces, the "last places of conviviality and freedom," said Franck Trouet, of hospitality association Hotels and Restaurants of France (GHR). In France, passive exposure to tobacco smoke causes 3,000 to 5,000 deaths per year, according to official figures. Smoking is steadily declining in France with "the lowest prevalence ever recorded since 2000", according to France addiction agency the OFDT. Less than a quarter of adults aged 18 to 75 reported smoking daily in 2023, according to the agency. Smoking causes 75,000 deaths per year in France and, again according to the OFDT, costs society 156 billion euros annually, counting factors including lost lives, quality of life, productivity, prevention, law enforcement, and healthcare.
Express Tribune
2 days ago
- Express Tribune
Fires break out as Europe heatwave intensifies
Firefighters mobilised in several countries to tackle blazes as southern Europeans sought shelter from punishing temperatures of a heatwave that is set to intensify in the coming days. Fires broke out in France and Turkey Sunday, with other countries already on alert. Authorities from Spain to Portugal, Italy and France urged people to seek shelter and protect the most vulnerable from the summer's first major heatwave. Ambulances stood on standby near tourist hotspots as experts warned that such heatwaves, intensified by climate change, would become more frequent. In Turkey, forest fires broke out Sunday afternoon in the western Izmir province, fed by strong winds, local media reported. Firefighters backed by specially adapted planes were battling the blaze, but five neighbourhoods in the Seferihisar district had to be evacuated, said the local governor. In France, wildfires broke out in the Corbieres area of Aude in the southwest, where temperatures topped 40 degrees (104F), forcing the evacuation of a campsite and abbey as a precaution. Already last week, Greek firefighters had to battle a forest blaze on the coast south of Athens that forced some evacuations. French weather service Meteo France put a record 84 out of the country's 101 regional departments on an orange heatwave alert -- the second-highest -- for Monday. Spain's weather service AEMET said temperatures in Extremadura and Andalusia, in the south and southwest, had reached up to 44C Sunday. In Madrid, where temperatures approached 40C, 32-year-old photographer Diego Radames told AFPTV: "I feel that the heat we're experiencing is not normal for this time of year. "As the years go by, I have the feeling that Madrid is getting hotter and hotter, especially in the city centre," he added. In Italy, 21 cities across the length of the country were on high alert for extreme heat, including Milan, Naples, Venice, Florence, Rome and Catania. "We were supposed to be visiting the Colosseum, but my mum nearly fainted," said British tourist Anna Becker, who had travelled to Rome from a "muggy, miserable" Verona. Hospital emergency departments across Italy have reported a 10-percent increase in heatstroke cases, according to Mario Guarino, vice president of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine. "It is mainly elderly people, cancer patients or homeless people, presenting with dehydration, heat stroke, fatigue," he told AFP. Several areas in the southern half of Portugal, including Lisbon, are under a red warning until Monday night, said the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA). Two-thirds of Portugal was also on high alert Sunday for extreme heat and forest fires -- as was the Italian island of Sicily, where firefighters tackled 15 blazes Saturday. Scientists say climate change is stoking hotter and more intense heatwaves, particularly in cities where the so-called "urban heat island" effect amplifies temperatures among tightly packed buildings. "The heat waves in the Mediterranean region have become more frequent and more intense in recent years," said Emanuela Piervitali, a researcher at the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA). "A further increase in temperature and heat extremes is expected in the future, so we will have to get used to temperatures with peaks even higher than those we are experiencing now," she told AFP. The heat is also attracting invasive species, which are thriving in the more tropical climes. ISPRA launched a campaign this week urging fishermen and tourists alike to report sightings of four "potentially dangerous" venomous species. The lionfish, silver-cheeked toadfish, dusky spinefoot and marbled spinefoot are beginning to appear in waters off southern Italy as the Mediterranean warms, it said. In France, experts warned that the heat was also severely hitting biodiversity. "We are taking in birds in difficulty everywhere; our seven care centres are saturated," said Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO). AFP
