Current practice
- SpO₂
- Heart rate
- How you feel
- Previous experience
Four thin signals, read one at a time. Useful in the field — but a weak predictor of what happens next.
Predictive altitude physiology
What if you could predict how your body responds to altitude?
ALTYPHY combines wearable sensors, physiology and AI to predict individual adaptation — before and during exposure to altitude. Built with mountaineers, guided by the science.
The problem
Two climbers.
Same mountain.
Completely different response.
Altitude is not just a question of fitness. Same preparation, same itinerary — and one person acclimatizes while the other doesn't. Today's tools can't reliably tell you in advance which is which.
- 01Higher risk of altitude illness, injury and longer-term health complications.
- 02An expedition that ends early — and a substantial fee written off.
- 03Costly rescues and insurance claims that nobody budgeted for.
- 04Reputational risk carried by climbers and operators alike.
What adaptation actually depends on
- cardiovascular
- respiratory
- metabolic
- muscular
- nervous
- hormonal
- genetics
- training load & recovery
Hypoxia isn't a single-biomarker problem. It's a systems problem — which is exactly how we model it.
Key insight — tolerance to hypoxia is…
Multisystemic
Many control systems interact. No single number tells the story.
Dynamic in time
What held true on your last trip may not hold on this one.
Highly individual
Between people, and within the same person over time.
The science
A systems view of adaptation
Millet & Bourdillon (2026) argue that altitude adaptation isn't decided by oxygen transport alone, but by an individual's regulatory reserve — the integrated capacity of several physiological control systems to hold homeostasis under hypoxic stress.
We're building toward that paradigm rather than around it: multimodal wearable data, quantified adaptation, honest uncertainty.
01 · Systems, not single variables
Acclimatization is a systems-physiology problem, and behaves like one.
02 · Interactions decide outcomes
Respiratory, cardiovascular, autonomic, cerebrovascular and diffusive systems interact — the interaction is the signal.
03 · Dynamic markers predict better
How your physiology moves under load tells us more than any resting value.
- Millet G.P., Bourdillon N. (2026) — regulatory reserve and altitude adaptation.
The platform
Wearables measure.
ALTYPHY interprets.
Device-agnostic by design — bring the watch, strap or ring you already train with. One app carries you from the gym to the summit push, in two modes.
Training mode
Prepare for the hypoxic environment
Your physiological baseline, daily readiness, HRV and SpO₂ trends, and a preparation plan that adjusts as the numbers move.
Expedition mode
A field tracker that keeps working
Records wearable data in the background without signal, grades risk low / moderate / high, and gives you a full picture to review after the trip.
For climbers & athletes
Know your own physiology
- A baseline assessment before the season, so preparation is aimed at your body and not an average one.
- Continuous tracking through the build-up and the expedition itself.
- Expert interpretation when you want a human read on the data.
For operators, guides & coaches
See your whole roster
- Better-prepared clients arriving with a known baseline instead of an unknown one.
- Acclimatization tracked across the team, with risk flags you can act on early.
- Fewer avoidable incidents, rescues and claims — and a stronger case as a responsible operator.
Who we are
Martin Zhor
High-altitude performance coach & mountain athlete · Founder
Martin turns altitude science into practical preparation for ambitious climbs. Based in Chamonix for 15+ years, he coaches mountaineers, trail runners and endurance athletes — including climbers who have reached Everest and other Seven Summits.
His expertise is mountain-proven, not only modelled — and that's the point. ALTYPHY is being built from inside the community it serves, with hypoxia research at Mid Sweden University on the other side of the same desk.
- 3 h 38
- Aconcagua, 6,962 m
ascent from base camp - 12 h 49
- Manaslu, 8,163 m
solo push, no supplemental O₂ - 20+ yrs
- coaching and field work
at altitude
The people behind the model
Coaches, clinicians, scientists
A small team, deliberately mixed: people who go up, people who read the data, and people who keep us honest about what it means.
Dr Barney Wainwright
Sport scientist
Senior Research Fellow, Leeds Beckett University; applied sports science at Sports Metrics Ltd.
Dr Patrycja Jonetzko
Medical consultant
Cardiothoracic anaesthesia and critical care, with high-altitude expedition medicine. Peninsula Heart Clinic, Plymouth.
Jan Kotrs
Bioinformatics
Digital health and research platforms; PhD candidate, FI MUNI.
Prof Grégoire Millet
Advisor · UNIL Lausanne
Professor of exercise and environmental physiology — responses to exercise in hypoxia and heat.
Dr Dana Lis
Advisor · science to impact
Translational research and sports nutrition, elite sport and performance. Truckee, California.
Also with us
University collaborations, multiple expedition datasets, and 60+ successful Everest clients whose data informs the model.
Where we are, honestly
Early, and saying so
The MVP is in development and the first users are coming on board this season. If you join now you're shaping the model, not buying a finished product — we think that's the honest way to say it.
2026 · Validation
First pilot users, first paid assessments, expedition monitoring in the field.
2027 · Commercial MVP
Expedition partners on the platform, recurring access for coaches and teams.
2028 · Scale
Professional platform, deeper sensor integration, clinical validation work.
Heading up this season?
Tell us about the trip and we'll tell you plainly whether we can help — and what we'd need from you to start a baseline. No newsletter treadmill: Martin reads these himself.
Prefer email? martin@altyphy.com · Chamonix, France