Adventures take us to new experiences and out of the everyday. Kilian Jornet says that exploring is human; Greg Hill that adventure is a mindset. Watch the Suunto Adventure video and hear what Kilian Jornet, Greg Hill, Jill Heinerth and Conrad Stoltz think of adventure. Top image: © Bruno Long

Sandra Koblmüller is the star of our recent Suunto Ambit3 Sport Sapphire shoot and you'll see her in the current campaign. But the 24-year-old is also an athlete in her own right and recently competed in the XTERRA world championships in Maui, the premier off-road triathlon, where she came 14th. Amazingly she only started swimming a few years ago. So how did she do it? How did you get to become a pro triathlete? In secondary school our class took part in a cross-country running competition. Without any serious training I came second and my passion for running was born. I started to regularly take part in running competitions. When I went to university a colleague asked me to do the running part in a triathlon relay. I was so impressed from the combination of the three disciplines that I wanted to try a whole triathlon on my own and started to train for swimming. And then? One year later I won the Austrian Championship for Crosstriathlon and the Austrian federation sent me to the European Championships. Because of this, I was allowed to become a professional athlete this year. In my first year as a “pro“ I came second at the XTERRA Portugal, which qualifies you for the World Championship in Maui (Hawaii). Tell us about your training routine?Normally I wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning. After a short breakfast I usually start my day in the swimming pool with a 3-5 km swim. I am not always motivated to jump into the cold water in the morning, but after some lanes I get my motivation and enjoy it. After the swim I take a second breakfast and do something for university then at noon or in the evening I usually do my second workout – either I go for a run or I ride my bike. At the weekend I normally do some longer bike workouts (about 4 hours). Then Monday is my rest day, where I do relaxing things like sauna, massages, stretching…How do you monitor your progress? I have my own trainer and I usually get a training plan for a week. With the help of the Suunto Ambit3 Sport Sapphire we are able to control my training. Are there any areas of your training that you are struggling with?As I started stroke swimming very late at the age of 20, my swimming technique is not the best. If you want to be a good swimmer/triathlete you have to start swimming in your childhood to get the water feeling. However I’m working hard to improve this. What are your dreams and goals?One of my biggest goals is to become one of the best XTERRA athletes in the world. A goal in the near future is a victory in one of the XTERRA World Tour races. What inspires and motivates you? One thing that inspires me is the improvement you make if you train hard for your goals. For example, when I started to swim, it took me about 1:45 for the 100 meters intervals (10 x 100m intervals of swimming). Now I am able to swim the 100m in 1:25 and I am sure that one day I will swim my 100m intervals under 1:20.What are your fears?I have a fear of failure, especially just before a competition. So the most important thing I have to learn is to believe in my strengths and myself.

Janick Lemieux and Pierre Bouchard are on the first leg of an epic cycle journey NOMADS² from northern Europe to the southern tip of South Africa in search of indigenous nomadic peoples. Janick Lemieux and Pierre Bouchard are no strangers to long cycle journeys. The Canadian couple previously spent six years on a 60,000 km 'cyclovolcanic' quest around the Pacific. For this trip, their plan is to cycle 35,000 km from Nordkapp Norway to Cape Agulhas, South Africa via 50 countries and dozens of nomadic groups. “We're embarking on an epic ride and a true voyage of exploration!”So far they've already cycled across Norway and encountered the Sami reindeer herders. “We snaked our way up north amidst its jaw-dropping fjords and celestial plateaus jutted with glaciated peaks and entered Sami (Lapland), traditional territory of the first nomads on our list, and were riding on the lookout for reindeer, their summer pastures and their herders,” the pair say in their latest dispatch. Besides Norway, they've also cycled across Finland's wilderness. “It's a land of magnificent taiga forests speckled with a multitude of lakes, vital marshes, and vast expanses of tundra covering summits and upper reaches of tunturis or fells. Reaching some 800 m above sea level, the venerable bald ridges are the sole survivors of billion of years old lofty mountain ranges. With their abundant lichens and few mosquitoes, they provide ideal summer grounds for reindeer. It's been a real immersion in this amazing land,” they add. It's not just remote indigenous peoples whom the pair have met. They also managed time for an encounter with an equally engaging team of individuals – the workforce at Suunto's HQ in Vantaa, Finland. We wished them the best of luck in their onward journey. Images: © Pierre Bouchard

We're all familiar with training rides. Sometimes you go hard and aim for a big distance day. On others it's more about the intensity and quality. But what if you're ice climbers Matthias Scherer and Tanja Schmitt and you're looking for the perfect training for ice climbing? Well, naturally you go for a non-stop 24 hour mountain bike challenge and try for as much distance and elevation as possible! Check the video below for a little teaser on how they got on: “It worked out great,” Matthias tells us. “It was a perfect test and training for our 24h ice challenge coming this winter.” This is a project to ice-climb non stop for 24 hours. “The night was quite cold and that was exactly what we wanted to have – winter like conditions on the descents. We both achieved our goals – me by cycling over 8,000 m of vertical and Tanja by passing 7,000 m. He adds: “The circuit we cycled was a true MTB circuit – 75% rough mountain roads with loose rocks, gravel and mud!” All images ©Matthias Scherer. Location: Urtier Valley, Cogne, Italy

Three men, two 8,000ers, 7 days and 170km. Mode of transport? Bike and skis only. Welcome to the quest of ski mountaineers Benedikt Böhm, Sebastian Haag and Andrea Zambaldi. The German and Italian trio have just embarked on an epic mission to climb Shisha Pangma (8,013 m) then ride their bikes the 170 km to Cho Oyu (8,201 m) where they hope to make another speed ascent, all within a week. They've spent the last week acclimatising up to 7,000 m and were all set to make their first summit attempt on Thursday September 18. However, bad weather and avalanche risk forced them to turn around. They're now back in base camp, preparing for a second summit bid.“Another attempt to climb Shisha Pangma is being planned and scheduled to happen within the next few days,” they blogged. Big surprise of the trip so far? Bumping into Suunto ambassador Ueli Steck at base camp, no stranger to speed ascents himself.“Ueli gave many useful tips,” the guys said. Ueli climbed Shisha Pangma and Cho Oyu in 2011. The three ski mountaineers, who are supported by Suunto, can be followed online here. All images © Elias Lefas

Cyclist and mountain biker Ross Lovell is one of the four winners from our Instagram selfie contest. Here the 30-year-old Briton tells us about his passion for endurance sports and adventure...  Riding the cobbles in the Alps. How does it feel to win? Incredible! I’ve been using an original Ambit for a couple of years and it has revolutionalised how I train. The depth of information is invaluable for enabling me to hit my targets, so I can’t wait to explore and challenge myself with the Ambit3 Sport. Just as importantly though, it’s really nice to have my photo picked by such a dedicated athlete as Conrad Stoltz. Tell us about the shot.The photo was taken on the second day of eight-days riding through the Alps. The day before we had ridden the 211km Salzkammergut Mountain Bike Trophy (with 7,000 m of ascent!), and as a shorter recovery ride we decided to take on the Kitzbuheler Horn. Wow, it was such a ferocious climb – relentless all the way to the top. On tired legs it was quite a fight. The last few switchbacks really get the burn going, with the gradient pitching to around 23%. Fighting the gradient, and whilst also trying to hold the bike in a straight line one-handed (not easy!) I quickly snapped the shot of our struggle. Ross after completing the 211km (7,000 m) Salzkammergut Trophy What are your sports? Cycling, mountain biking, running, climbing, although I wouldn’t say I’m great at any of them, I just like a good challenge and an adventure. Tell us about your adventures. I’ll have a go at anything really, so have quite a varied list of previous challenges. I’ve raced the Cape Epic and Transportugal mountain bike races, climbed in the Alps and Pyrenees, swum up rivers in Sweden, kayaked non-stop for 26-hours, run ultra marathons like The North Face 100 in the Blue Mountains and Dusk til Dawn in the UK, twice finished the Norseman Xtreme Triathlon, ridden the Tour du Mont Blanc 3-times, cycled from London to Alpe d’Huez…Anything else? My first big adventure was when I was just 18 and spent six months cycling and climbing around Europe. We were completely spontaneous – just looking at maps and deciding where to go next, sleeping on beaches and on mountains. It was total freedom. We even ran the Swiss Alpine Marathon in Davos while we were there. A couple of years ago we cycled from London, through Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, mountain biked across the Alps to Lake Geneva and then ran the GR20 across Corsica, all in just 14-days. Ross's winning selfie, climbing the Kitzbuheler Horn, Austria. A recent adventure you're really proud of?On the final day of our eight-day cycling tour of the Alps, we finished with the 330km Tour du Mont Blanc, with its eight climbs and 8,000 m of ascent. The weather had one final sting in the tail. As we came over the penultimate pass – the Cormet de Roselend – we were hit by an almighty storm which caused trees to come down, lightning all around us, big hail stones, landslides. Only 50% of the riders who started the day made it to the finish, which made the accomplishment all the more special, especially after the full-on week we had already tackled. What's next? Over the weekend of September 28th/29th I will be running 120-miles non-stop across my home county of Devon in the south west of the UK – from Coast-to-Coast. www.lighthouse2lookout.co.uk.  Follow Ross via Twitter and Instagram. All images ©Ross Lovell