> One argument I could see is that you can't easily simulate what happens to a person climbing in a mountain environment in a chamber
I was thinking about this, but what are they actually investigating? Is it what happens to mountaineers at altitude or to simulate what happens to hypoxic patients?
If it's the latter then chambers would be fine. Although they try to give it clinical relevance, I suspect that really the aim of it is to study the effects of altitude on mountaineers. I think this is a perfectly acceptable aim btw. IMO they gave it a glossy "we're researching for icu patients etc" to get the coverage, as not many members of the public would be interested in the effects of altitude on mountaineers.
Obviously they could be sincerely trying to do relevant research for patients, however then they could use chambers. This goes back to the first question I asked; what is the aim. M