Exposure of healthy subjects to high altitude hypoxia elicits changes in cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic features as weel as in exercise performance similar, for some aspects, to those observed in chronic heart failure. Exposure to high altitude hypoxia represents a suitable model to assess different treatments proposed for this pathological condition. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of two different third-generation beta-blockers used in heart failure (carvedilol and nebivolol) on cardiovascular, respiratory, metabolic profile and on exercise performance at high altitude.