Review: Hypoxico Portable Altitude Tent
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In A Nutshell
Hypoxico’s altitude tent allows you to simulate high altitude conditions from your own home, promoting physiological adaptation prior to a big expedition.
Specs
Intro
Last summer, a couple of my close ski partners and I booked a trip to Ecuador. Our goal? Skiing off two volcanoes located near Quito: Cayambe (18,996 feet) and Chimborazo (20,549 feet). While neither of these descents is particularly technically challenging, both these volcanoes are quite high and thus altitude is a major obstacle to contend with when actually summiting and skiing off of these peaks.
“Altitude” basically just refers to the height of an object, but in the world of mountain climbing the term specifically refers to locations that are far above sea level (i.e. high elevation). Changes in altitude impact air pressure and oxygen saturation levels. Higher altitudes have lower air pressures and lower amounts of oxygen. Low levels of oxygen at higher altitudes can stress the human body and lead to a state of hypoxia, where there’s not enough oxygen to support tissue function.
Because human bodies are pretty amazing, we are capable of adapting to lower levels of oxygen in the air. “Acclimatization” refers to the process by which our bodies adapt physiologically to lower levels of oxygen in the air. This is a process that happens over time. If you know anything about big mountain expeditions, you’ve probably noticed that people tend to go up in altitude a little bit and then hang out at a camp for a few days to “acclimate” before going higher.
While acclimatization is important, it’s not always feasible to spend extra days or weeks in hostile, remote mountain environments at altitude. But it’s also hard for the general population to access significant altitudes near their home for acclimatization purposes. Enter: Hypoxico’s altitude tent.
What Is An Altitude Tent And How Does It Work?
An altitude tent is a special tent that hooks up to a generator, which, together, allows you to simulate different altitudes inside the tent. It’s a great option for ambitious athletes looking to acclimatize to high altitudes prior to a big expedition or to acclimatize at home if there’s not enough time to do so in the mountains.
Air that we breathe every day is a mix of nitrogen (~78%), oxygen (~21%), and argon (~1%). Hypoxico’s Everest Summit II generator works by compressing air which is pushed through a molecular sieve that separates nitrogen from oxygen. The unit then pumps air that is depleted of oxygen into the tent, thus creating a low oxygen (aka “hypoxic”) environment. This pumping creates what’s called a “normobaric hypoxic environment” which really just means that the air pressure in the tent is the same as it is normally, but the air has less oxygen. The impact this then has on you when you’re in the tent is to simulate altitude and push your body to start to adjust to the lower oxygen environment.
Why This Product?
Hypoxico offers a range of different tent sizes to choose from. My partner and I were limited in choosing a tent because we have a full size bed, so we were choosing between the head bivy and the portable tent. We opted for the portable tent to have as much space as possible.
There are also several different options for generators (the machine that changes oxygen levels in the air and pumps this modified air into the tent). We opted to try the Everest Summit Generator II because it seems to be the most popular option for at-home use.
Setup
I had no idea what to expect and was a little nervous about actually setting up the tent and generator, but it was actually pretty straightforward. The tent and generator came in separate boxes and were shipped with an instruction manual. While the set-up was a little daunting, the manuals combined with a Youtube video were all I needed.
Essentially, your mattress slides into the portable tent and then you insert the tent poles. The result is a tent set up on your bedframe with your everyday mattress inside of it. Tubes from the generator then run into the tent (through a very obvious hole). The generator, when turned on, can then modulate the altitude within the tent (when the tent is all zipped up) and you can sleep at altitude to help acclimate leading up to a big trip.
We received the tent six weeks prior to our expedition (the recommended timeline for using an altitude tent).
Simulating Gradual Acclimatization
As mentioned above, the theory behind altitude acclimatization is to go up a little bit and let yourself adjust. Then go up a little higher. So, with the altitude tent you start by simulating a modest elevation and then move up in altitude every few nights. Key to the acclimatization process, though, is making sure you feel good. You don’t want to go any higher if you have any altitude symptoms (think headache, nausea, feeling sick, difficulty sleeping).
What this looks like for you will vary based on personal goals and how you respond to altitude. But generally, you can think about increasing the simulated altitude you’re sleeping at by 500-1,000 feet every 3-5 nights. And you want to pay attention to how you feel and how well you sleep to gauge acclimatization.
Curious about acclimatization? Kilian Jornet used an altitude tent prior to a big mission in the Himalaya with some pretty rad results. Read about his experience here.
In Use
It was pretty weird to sleep in a tent in my own bed. But after a week or so, my partner and I had figured out a good routine. We would turn on the generator while getting ready for bed (make sure the tent is all zipped) and then crawl into bed and sleep at whatever altitude we were simulating that night.
As someone who gets a little claustrophobic in tight spaces, I was nervous about how it would feel to sleep in a tent in my bed. The first night was definitely challenging but the clear sidewalls of Hypoxico’s portable tent make it feel totally manageable and more spacious, which definitely eased the transition to tent sleeping for me.
An unexpected challenge of the tent was temperature. The walls are pretty thick to contain the low oxygen air the generator is pumping into it. The thickness of the walls, though, also seemed to trap heat and I found myself waking up pretty frequently each night because it was so hot. We played around with taking blankets off our bed and turning down our heat, but temperature was definitely an ongoing challenge. The combination of heat and altitude definitely made it less than ideal sleeping conditions, but also felt like good preparation for actual the discomfort of sleeping at altitude on an expedition. Had we had the tent longer than six weeks, I think we also may have gotten creative and tried to add a fan inside the tent to help regulate temperature and I would definitely recommend installing a fan if you find yourself using an altitude tent.
The generator is also noisy. I’m a pretty deep sleeper so once I feel asleep, it didn’t bother me, but if you’re a light sleeper you definitely should consider that the generator sounds like a loud fan throughout the night.
Performance
Three days before we were set to depart for Ecuador, one of my ski partners had an accident and smacked his head. He’ll be okay but it meant we had to call off the trip. Next year! We laughed at ourselves for sleeping in an altitude for 6 weeks only to have the trip canceled. But we did learn a lot about how to use an altitude tent and why you might want to.
While hard to directly credit this to sleeping at altitude, I also felt awesome on an early season big objective. In early November, I headed to Mount Timpanogos with some friends for our first ski of the season. We parked our car at just over 6,000 feet, hoisted packs weighted down with skis and boots onto our backs, and ascended to over 11,000 feet. It was a pretty ambitious first day in the backcountry and I wasn’t sure how I would feel. I was pleasantly surprised that it felt pretty mellow. It was certainly a lot of time on my feet and a big day out (with minimal skiing due to patchy, early-season snow) but I felt awesome gaining so much elevation and very comfortable above 11,000 feet.
While I don’t think an altitude tent is necessary for objectives like Timpanogos which isn’t that high in the grand scheme of things, I was psyched that I felt so good on a big objective early season.
Renting vs. Buying
Hypoxico tents offer an option where you can rent a product before buying it to test it out. Because these tents and generators are so expensive, renting is a great option to really make sure you know what you’re getting and to see if you actually need it.
Altitude tents are a sweet technology that can help you really prepare for a big expedition (think Himalayan mountains, Denali, high volcanoes). So if you have a trip coming up and feel like you need to acclimatize in advance, altitude tents are a great option and worth the investment if it helps enable a successful expedition.
That being said, it is not the most comfortable sleeping experience. It’s totally doable but I found it to be hot, you’re at altitude (which just doesn’t always feel great), you have a generator making noise right next to your bed, and you have to put a little more effort into going to bed every night. Altitude tents are definitely not something you casually opt into. It is an upfront investment and a physical commitment.
If you have a once-in-a-lifetime big mountain trip coming up that you want to knock out of the park, renting an altitude tent could be a great option for preparing for this trip specifically. But you probably don’t need to buy a tent if you don’t have many big trips like this. Alternatively, if you frequent high altitudes, have a lot of big mountain trips on the horizon, or feel like you struggle at altitude and could benefit from extra acclimatization, then owning a tent may be a good option for you.
What sort of skiers will appreciate a Hypoxico Altitude System?
Sleeping at altitude is no joke and certainly not for the faint of heart. It will be hard and uncomfortable at times. But it’s an awesome way to start the acclimatization process prior to a high altitude expedition and the Hypoxico portable tent and Everest Summit II generator make it pretty easy and convenient to set up in your home.
