Suunto Blog

As a professional adventurer, I constantly search far and wide for new challenges and new spots to explore. My happiness, my inspiration… essentially everything that fulfills me comes from nature. But looking at how I access these adventures, it’s clear: I am killing the world as it stimulates me. Not only was I well beyond the sustainable level, there was more that the test could not calculate. The heli-guiding, the snowmobile I used for access – these were not added to the thousands of kilometers driven in my F-350, or the multiple intercontinental flights. The truth was obvious: I needed to change my ways. Immediately I decided to try something suggested by my brother Graham at his TED talk. I became a weekday vegetarian and got my family to join me. (It is amazing to think how much of an impact the global meat industry has!) A simple but very effective change. But for me, with my globe-trotting adventures, I really needed to look into my travel. So I quit heli-ski guiding, sold my giant diesel truck, let my snowmobile rust and looked at different ways to get to the trailhead. We are constantly reading about electric vehicles being the future – but I was skeptical. EVs have historically had a limited range ­– which makes them ideal commuter vehicles for urbanites – but useless for someone where I live. Revelstoke is a small mountain town, deep in the Canadian mountains, 250–400km from major cities. With cold winters and deep snow there are many very valid reasons to be scared of converting to electric. The sacrifices I needed to make seem daunting ­– but perhaps they are not as big as they seem. So we had to test it out. My friend Chris Rubens and I went on an electric adventure. Our goal: live our normal adventurous lifestyle while being more sustainable getting from spot to spot. Chris and Greg on their electric volcano adventure. I rented a Nissan Leaf from Ecomoto in Vancouver – a commuter vehicle with 100 miles of range. Far from ideal – but if we could drive down the West coast of the USA, climb and ski a bunch of volcanoes and make it back, we could prove to ourselves that electric access is the future. So first, we met up and climbed and skied Mt Baker, then began our true road trip down south. An app called “Plug and Share” would guide us to all the level 3 chargers, which take around 40 minutes to fully charge the car. This trip was admittedly ideal, since the I-5 corridor that goes south down to Washington, Oregon and into California is littered with these chargers. It’s not to say we didn’t face challenges. The trailhead for Mt Rainier is quite far inland and well away from any Level 3 chargers. But our app showed us a Level 2 charger that someone had set up at their house for their Tesla. We arrived at the park boundary and started charging at Phil’s personal plug. The percentage slowly moved upwards. We had to hastily leave with barely 70% as the park’s gates were closing. Committed, we drove upwards. As we climbed up to the trailhead our % dropped and dropped. 40%...35% and then finally at 31% we made it. We parked and decided to deal with it when we returned. Greg charging down a sun-baked volcano. A great couple of days had us on the 14,400-foot summit and then skiing down a heavily crevassed, but super awesome run. Arriving back at the car we wondered if our first mistake was going to haunt us. Luckily the Leaf has a ‘B” mode which allows the car to slow itself using the engine, putting electricity back into the motor. So as we drove down 5500 feet we brought our charge back up to 50%. A few hours at Phil’s charger and we were off. Yeehaw! Maybe this is going to work! Mt Hood was our next objective – and there were Level 3 chargers right up to the trailhead. A great summit and silly ski had us driving south. Eventually the ease of charging had us pushing the battery percentage as low as we could go, extending each drive till the % disappeared and the ‘KMs left’ blinked out. We realized there was always extra battery left, and we pushed it many times. Never fully running out of gas – or rather, juice. Charging, charging... to make it to yet another mountain. We made it as far south as Mt Shasta in California, where there were less Level 3 chargers and we ended up charging up at RV campgrounds – Level 2 chargers that would take 3-5 hours to fully charge. A couple oddball Canadians, camped amongst the behemoth RVs. While we drove back north, hitting Mt Adams on the way we pondered our experiment. We ended up traveling almost 5000km, climbed and skied six volcanoes, went rock-climbing five times, had amazing adventures and camped in great places. Essentially: our normal lives, with one major difference. We used one liter of gas during the whole trip: for our cookstove. Not being able to move quickly between objectives made us more relaxed. Forced stops every few hours had us re-thinking our Type A personalities. To me electric vehicles are the future, especially since climate change would affect our jobs so badly. My lesson has been learned. Since returning from this trip I have bought an electric Chevrolet Bolt and have fully jumped into the electric vehicle movement. I have dreams of summiting 100 mountains and creating minimal emissions while doing so. It’s a challenge I am calling ‘electric adventures.’ I am 14 summits in, and I have run to some, climbed up others, and skied off those volcanoes. It is a great start and it feels so amazing to be part of the solution to our climate crisis. I will never be perfect – but I can search out ways to be better. All images © Chris Rubens Watch "Electric Adventures with Greg Hill and Chris Rubens"now Press play and follow along on an Electric Adventure

Jeff Pelletier, a trail runner and filmmaker from Vancouver, BC, Canada put together this great video with some tips for navigating with the Suunto Spartan. He showcases how you can navigate in new surroundings or challenging terrain using these three different features of the Spartan. 1. Routes 2. Compass 3. Breadcrumb   Watch the video now!   You are not limited to these three ways to navigate. You can also use POI navigation (read how this is done here). In addition, as of the Spartan update in June (1.9.36) you can now also use find back navigation which plots your quickest route back to your starting point utilizing the compass to guide you.   Main image by @jpelletier   Learn more about Suunto Spartan GPS watches

I’ve been to the Himalayas before, but not like this I’ve been running in the Himalayas plenty, but I’ve never done anything quite this: an attempt on Cho Oyu, an 8000m peak and the sixth tallest mountains in the world. We did all the acclimatization at home I was there for less than two weeks – most people take two months to acclimatize. This is very much new-school, fast-and-light alpinism. We did all the acclimatization at home hooked up to a machine that simulated being up at 7500m. People hear we did an expedition, and they think ‘sherpas’ But that’s not how we did it. That’s not how I want to go the mountains, and not how Kilian wants to go to the mountains. There was no pressure This was a trip I did for myself, out of my own pocket – so there was very little pressure to ‘do it for the sponsors’. I wanted to explore for myself and see what was possible for myself. At sea level Kilian is much faster But at altitude we start to even out a little bit more – although he will always be stronger and more technical. We were surprised at how fast we were moving at altitude – about 250m an hour at 7500m. That’s pretty fast. I reach 7500m and 7800m on two different days The first time was a planned acclimatization. The second attempt was a summit bid – it was our last day, and there was a small weather window. But it got late, bad weather started rolling in, and I simply decided to turn around. Kilian and I discussed that he would go on. I had to wait a few hours for him to come down – during that time I regretted a bit the decision to split up. Ueli’s death gave us a big scare We were in Cho Oyu we got the news about Ueli Steck. I didn’t know him personally well, but he was friends with Kilian. He was extreme but he was a hero. His life was an affirmation of everything that is possible. When he died it was hard. Kilian never considered not following through There is a big difference between Ueli’s very technical route and Kilian’s Everest Route. I knew Kilian was in a really good shape and responding well to the altitude. I knew he would be fine on Everest in the right conditions. When he was taking longer than expected I began to worry a bit, as Kilian is usually extremely good at predicting his times – but I was getting updates from Seb Montaz. I don’t want to do Everest I want to go to some high altitude mountains. I really liked it. Mountains are the foundation, racing is just the topping. I love running and skiing, and I’m fascinated with alpinism, but I’m more concerned about the exposure. I don’t like that. I’m a big fan of life. I don’t see myself moving in the kind of terrain that Ueli did, in the way that he did. Even if I attained the technical skills, I don’t think I want to be here. I would like to go back to Mt Blanc Ii have been running up and down many times, but I want to put a record on that one – there’s not so many women doing it. I would like to go back to Cho Oyu to ski, as the winter route looks amazing. Some other bigger peaks as well. But Cho Oyu on skis might be my next dream trip. I am happy Kilian is done I want to keep his passport so that he can’t go anywhere for some time!

 We caught up with Kilian as soon as he returned to Europe and talked a bit about his two Everest summits. “It was really interesting to see the Himalayas and Everest as the mountains in the Alps. In the Base Camp I packed all the gear I needed, a backpack of about seven kilos, and started running towards the night and then kept moving all the night and during the day on the ridge. When I was on the summit it was night again. It was a really good feeling to be on the summit of the world alone,” Kilian says.   Watch a Suunto Movie of Kilian’s amazingly fast ascent from Base Camp to the summit Kilian started the climb at the Base Camp at the ancient Rongbuk monastery at 5.100m. The climb began well but Kilian was hampered by stomach problems from 7.500m, which slowed him down considerably and forced him to make repeated stops. “I didn’t feel great and was moving very slowly. I had to stop every few metres with cramps and vomiting. But I felt ok with the altitude and decided to continue. When I got back down [to Advanced Base Camp] I thought I would like to try another attempt if I felt well enough,” he explained. And Kilian did. Only six days later he summited Everest from the Advanced Base Camp (6.400m). The weather was worse than during his first climb, very windy and snowing at the top. However, the conditions improved throughout the night and he returned to the camp 28 hours 30 minutes after leaving. “I was feeling a little tired from the first climb but it was good to know that it is possible to climb these big mountains on consecutive days, not only as one month projects with one summit per month. It is possible to do many activities in the big mountains. It was really windy and it was snowing on the summit but it was another incredible moment,” Kilian says. The two ascents are part of Kilian’s Summits of My Life project, which has taken him to some of the most iconic mountains across the globe setting records for fastest known ascents. He began in the Mont Blanc range in 2012 and has since climbed in Europe (Mont Blanc & Matterhorn), in North America (Denali) and in South America (Aconcagua). He tried to ascend Everest already in 2016 but then poor weather conditions forced him to abandon his climb.  Kilian was accompanied on this Everest expedition by mountain guide and cameraman Sébastien Montaz-Rosset.

“I’m so happy to have made the summit again! Today I felt good although it was really windy so it was hard to move fast. I think summiting Everest twice in one week without oxygen opens up a new realm of possibilities in alpinism and I’m really happy to have done it,” Kilian said after returning to the mountain’s Advanced Base Camp. Jornet had already reached the summit on May 22, but stomach cramps had prevented him from completing his route as planned. Jornet reached the summit via the North Face of Everest on May 27 at 9pm. He had left the Advanced Base Camp at 6.400m at 2am. He climbed to the summit on the ‘normal’ route passing the three high altitude camps used by climbers attempting the world’s highest mountain, a climb which takes on average four days. The climb to the summit was slow but continuous. The wind was the main obstacle Jornet had to overcome, on an extremely windy Himalayan day. Weather conditions improved throughout the night in the latter part of the route and he returned to Advanced Base Camp 28 hours 30 minutes after leaving. With this ascent Jornet repeats the feat of reaching the world’s highest point after having climbed to the summit only six days earlier. On the previous climb, he reached the summit in 26 hours, but he started that one lower down, at the Base Camp at the ancient Rongbuk monastery at 5.100m. The first climb had begun well but he was hampered by stomach problems from 7.500m, which slowed him down considerably and forced him to make repeated stops.   “I didn’t feel great and was moving very slowly. I had to stop every few metres with cramps and vomiting. But I felt ok with the altitude and decided to continue. When I got back down I thought I would like to try another attempt if I felt well enough,” he explained.    The two ascents are part of Kilian’s Summits of My Life project, which has taken Kilian to some of the most iconic mountains across the globe setting records for fastest known ascents. He began in the Mont Blanc range in 2012 and has since climbed in Europe (Mont Blanc & Matterhorn), in North America (Denali) and in South America (Aconcagua). He tried to ascend Everest already in 2016 but then poor weather conditions forced him to abandon his climb. Jornet was accompanied on this Everest expedition by mountain guide and cameraman Sébastien Montaz-Rosset.

Ueli Steck, our long-time friend and ambassador, died in a climbing accident in the Himalayas on April 30. Ueli was not just an exceptional athlete and explorer. His humble attitude and persistence to realize his dreams was an inspiration to many – us included. Ueli Steck, 4.10.1976–30.4.2017 We were privileged to be by Ueli’s side since 2005. We saw him grow from a speed climber in the Alps to one of the best mountaineers of his time and an exceptional endurance athlete. Ever since Ueli’s 2008 record-breaking solo speed ascent of the north face of the Eiger Ueli Steck was regarded as one of climbing’s most spectacular talents. In 2013 he was in the limelight after making an incredibly bold solo ascent of the south face of Annapurna (8,091 m) in 28 hours – a new record. The ascent won him the Piolet d’Or, one of climbing’s most prestigious awards. “I was at the limits of my physical and mental ability. To go to such limits changes your consciousness,” Ueli said after the expedition. Climbers regard it as one of the most significant climbs in the Himalayas in a generation. Ueli did not do things the traditional way. He wanted to climb light to be able to move fast. To him fast meant less time spent at altitude which increased safety. But Ueli was also a purist. “It’s out of the question for me to use bottled oxygen,” he said. “I either make the summit without it or I turn back, go home and train more.” And train he did. He was preparing for his climbs like an Olympic endurance athlete. Climbing was just one part of getting faster, being better. In fact, Ueli really fell in love with trail running and believed endurance training could be the best way for him to become even better as a mountaineer: the gains he could get by training climbing were marginal compared to the gains he could get by being in the best possible shape. When preparing for his Everest Lhotse Traverse Ueli travelled to Khumbu Valley for high-altitude training this February. He wanted to spend time and train in high altitude to be ready for his big Himalayan challenge this spring. And he was ready. We have never seen Ueli as confident and relaxed as he was before his travel to Everest in April. He felt that he was in the shape of his life and was really looking forward to the climbs in the highest mountains of the world. “Working with Ueli all these years has been an inspiration; his way to see the sport, his pure way to approach the mountains and his determination in his projects pushed also us to do things better. Our long talks were filled with energy and inspiration. We have not only lost an athlete, but a friend who will always be remembered,” says Joan Sola, sport and community manager at Suunto. It was in the mountains that Ueli felt most at home. To him the north face of Eiger was as casual as a trail in the local park is for us. That is where he felt most at home. But no matter what the route or the mountain, Steck’s inspiration remained the same. “It’s the challenge of moving on in life,” he says. “I always want to try something I have not done before.” And that attitude of moving forward, of making progress, is what inspired us the most in Ueli. He showed us all that dreams can come true with determination and hard work. Ueli, may your spirit forever guard others who live their dreams on the mountains. We will miss you – and your broad smile.