Spotify Premium users can download their favorite albums, playlists, and podcasts to listen offline with this new feature. Other users can only stream their tunes in Shuffle Mode using a WiFi or cellular connection or download their favorite podcasts to the watch. Here’s how to use Spotify offline on a Suunto 7: Using the Spotify app on your Suunto 7, find the music and podcasts you want to download and have offline. Tap “Download to watch.” To check on the progress, head over to the Downloads section on your Suunto 7. Once you’ve downloaded the selected playlists, albums, or podcasts in your library, you’ll see a little green arrow next to their names. Connect your headphones and start listening, no matter where you are! Head to Google Play to download the Spotify app or update your watch to the latest version. Once the new features are available, you’ll be on your way. *Requires your Suunto 7 to run at least Wear OS 2.0 or higher. Please make sure you are also running the latest version of Spotify on your device. READ MORE The benefits of training to music and making your best playlist Meet the Mambo Brothers, two health conscious DJs living the nightlife Head back to work on top of things with a Suunto 7 smartwatch

Ultra-trail du Mont Blanc is coming back on August 27-28, 2021 after a two-year break. We asked Courtney Dauwalter and Pau Capell, the winners of the latest edition of the UTMB® (2019), to share their favorite points along the way. Read on, get the routes from komoot and sync them to your Suunto for navigation. Happy adventures! Col du Bonhomme (2329m) Located at Km 43 of the UTMB®. It is not the highest col of the route, but it is the longest ascent of all points that we are recommending to follow the UTMB®.Take it easy on the softer start from Saint Gervais or Les Contamines because from La Balme the most demanding part awaits you. Refuge Bonatti (2025m) Located at Km 92 of the UTMB®. Named in homage to the Italian mountaineer Walter Bonatti.Spectacular views await you just in front of the Grandes Jorasses, allowing you to discover the Vale Ferret. A spectacular valley in the Courmayeur area; the Italian gateway to Mont Blanc. La Fouly (1600m) Located at Km 111 of the UTMB®. A small town in the Swiss sector of Mont Blanc. A perfect starting point on the path to Grand Col Ferret (2537m); the border point between Switzerland and Italy. An ascent of practically 1000m + in a zig-zag allows us to reach one of the highest steps and spectacular views. Champex-lac (1466m) Located at Km 126 of the UTMB®. Situated in the Swiss Alps, it is a picturesque lakeside town surrounded by forests. Ideal for families, the area offers routes and activities of all styles and for all audiences.One of the most popular starting points of the Mont Blanc Tour and from where we propose two route options. Vallorcine (1120m) Located at Km 150 of the UTMB®. Last village in the Chamonix-Mont Blanc Valley before reaching Switzerland. We recommend the ascent way to Tete aux vents to see the race leaders pass on their last climb before the long descent of the Flegere that will take them to the arrival of Chamonix! View the route collection on komoot Connect your Suunto with komoot To get set up, simply connect your Suunto app with your komoot profile: Go to your profile on Suunto app and select ‘komoot’ under ‘Partner services’. Select ‘Connect with komoot’ and sign into your komoot account and allow requested permissions to connect. As soon as you have connected the two accounts the sync is automatic both ways: your activities that are tracked with your Suunto are synced to komoot and the routes created on komoot are available on your route library on Suunto app. Lead image by Martina Valmassoi

It’s a love-hate relationship. That’s the way Suunto athlete and South African ultra runner Ryan Sandes characterizes his relationship with the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), the 171 km race around Mont Blanc - the highest mountain in the Alps. The epic distance, plus 10,040 m of elevation gain to boot makes UTMB one of the most challenging ultra races on the planet. For this reason, it attracts elite ultra runners from around the world. First held in 2003, the route follows the Tour du Mont Blanc, one of the most popular long distance hiking trails in Europe.     In 2019, the last time the race was held before the pandemic shut down public events, Suunto athletes Pau Capell and Courtney Dauwalter won the male and female divisions. In 2017, Suunto athlete Francois D’Haene won the male division. Courtney and Francois will be racing alongside Ryan at UTMB 2021. Pau is recovering from injury. “UTMB has become the biggest race on the global trail running stage,” Ryan says. “It’s always great to be a part of that.” Ryan is currently in Chamonix preparing for the race to be held on August 27-28. It will be the fourth time he’s been on the start line, and he hopes the first time he completes the circuit and crosses the finish line. “I’ve started it three times and actually never finished,” he says. “It’s the one race left that I really want to do well at, at least to finish. I feel I have a bit of a monkey on my back here.”     A rocky history The first time Ryan entered UTMB was back in 2015. At the time he was recovering from glandular fever and had to pull out of the race at the 40k mark because the symptoms flared up. He tried again in 2016, but stomach problems early on resulted in another DNF. Two years later, he tried again, this time feeling good. But a shoulder injury had knock-on effects to a hip and forced him to drop out at 60k. “So I definitely haven’t had the best luck at UTMB,” Ryan says. “Hopefully I can turn things around this year.” Breaking the mental block Mont Blanc and the surrounding massif is one of Ryan’s favorite alpine landscapes. He’s enjoyed amazing experiences exploring the area. Just not while racing. Even in 2017, the year he won the Western States 100-mile Endurance Run, Ryan ran the UTMB’s little sister race, the 100 km Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix (CCC), and didn’t perform as he hoped. “Whenever it comes to racing here things haven’t gone according to plan,” Ryan says. “I guess I’ve got a little mental block to be completely honest.” The toughness of UTMB You can’t fault him for struggling in this race; it has earned its reputation for toughness for a reason. Ryan’s hometown Cape Town doesn’t have mountains like the Alps. “UTMB is the one race where all the top runners are always at, which is great for the sport of trail running,” Ryan says. “It’s super competitive so it starts off really fast. The very long and very fast downhill sections tend to smash your legs up a bit. That takes some getting used to. And then there’s the big climbs and getting used to trekking poles. The conditions here are quite different to what I’m used to.” The goal This is the first international race Ryan has competed in since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. From a mental perspective this creates a degree of uncertainty both for himself and for many of the other competitors. “First things first, my goal is to get around in one piece,” Ryan says. “Then being a naturally competitive person, I want to stay as close to the front of the field as possible.” UTMB 2021 is (provisionally) set to start between 5pm and 6pm on August 27. Tune in live to watch the action here!   All images: © Kelvin Trautman / Red Bull Content Pool

Paul climbs Titlis in Switzerland during Red Bull X-Alps 2019. © Harald Tauderer / Red Bull Content Pool   Paul Guschlbauer could kick himself. A few months back, he was skiing on his local mountain when bad weather hit and he found himself in a whiteout. “In the middle of it I suddenly skied over a little cliff,” he says. “I didn’t realise what happened. I fell down the five to seven metre-high cliff and hit ice and my foot broke.” That was three months ago, and has meant Paul lost two months of crucial training time in the build up to his seventh straight time competing in the world’s premiere hiking and alpine paragliding race. He has placed third in the last three editions, but this time can’t be sure how he will perform. “I feel I have good equipment, a good crew, I have a lot of experience with this race, but what I cannot know right now is how my foot will react, say, for example, after three days of walking 50 km,” he says. “I’ve had no time or chance to test it.” Mont Blanc looms large Red Bull X-Alps starts in Salzburg, crosses the Alps by foot or paraglider, and has, until this edition of the race, ended on the Mediterranean Sea in Monaco. But the race organizers – after looking for ways to make the 10th edition of the race tougher – have implemented what Paul says is the biggest change in race history; instead of making their way from alpine peaks to the Mediterranean Sea, the 33 competitors will complete a loop, starting in Salzburg, to Mont Blanc, which they must circumnavigate anti clockwise, before returning east to ultimately finish on the waters of Zell am See, Austria. “At Red Bull X-Alps you can never say one stage or another will be the most challenging,” Paul says. “It all depends on the weather. Of course looking at it now, and assuming great weather, the Mont Blanc circumnavigation, to turn around and go back to the goal, is definitely the most difficult alpine and mountaineering wise. That will be a challenging part. I hope I can get there.” If the athletes hit bad weather at Mont Blanc, and it’s not flyable, it’s going to be a huge challenge. Follow the journey and the adversity live here!   Paul soaring next to Mont Blanc in 2019. © zooom productions / Red Bull Content Pool Suunto has their backs Suunto is a race sponsor and the athletes will be using Suunto 9 Baro Titanium Red Bull X-Alps Limited Edition watches to guide their journey across the Alps and back. With a battery life of up to 170 hours, the sports watch tested to the extreme is designed exactly for this kind of epic adventure. “The most important feature, besides telling me the time and the sunrise and sunset times, which is really important, is definitely navigation in combination with the Suunto app,” Paul says. “It’s super easy to get all the tracks on the watch and then navigate with it. That’s the most time saving point overall.”   We are only producing 1238 of the Suunto 9 Baro Titanium Red Bull X-Alps Limited Edition watches. One for every kilometer of the race. Get yours here!  New hike and fly watch feature A new SuuntoPlus feature designed for paragliders will also support Paul and the rest of the athletes on their journey. The Red Bull X-Alps SuuntoPlus feature is a handy tool to keep track of vertical speed, similar to what a paragliding variometer provides. It helps the hike and fly community to see, feel and hear how fast they are climbing. “The new watch feature is pretty cool,” Paul says. “It’s like a back up that you always have with you for if you didn't bring your variometer, or any other flying device. You can't use it instead of a real flying device, but on a hike and fly, if you forgot your equipment, it's great to have it.” Follow the race live! This 10th edition of the race is likely to be the most action-filled yet. Millions of people across the world tune in to watch the progress of their favorite athletes live on the state-of-the-art Red Bull X-Alps live tracking tool. It shows you where the athletes are on the map, and keeps you up to speed with breaking news from the field. Find out about the athletes here, choose your horse, buy some popcorn so come race day on June 20 you’re ready to settle in and follow the action!     Lead images: © zooom productions / Red Bull Content Pool ©wisthaler.com

American photographer and artist Chris Burkard travels the world documenting amazing people, places and events. Recently he was visiting Iceland, a country he adores, to go on a bikepacking adventure. But life had other plans. A volcano erupted, and Chris knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to capture this incredible force of nature. It didn’t disappoint. Press play to watch the power of nature! What he witnessed blew his mind and got him reflecting on peak experiences, those almost altered states of consciousness characterised by euphoria and wonder. “I was just so honored to experience it,” he says. We caught up with Chris and asked him about the experience and what he’s learned about peak experiences through his years of travelling the world and witnessing incredible things. Do you often travel to Iceland? I do! In fact I have been there 43 times. In some ways it's an obsession and I think what draws me there the most is the landscape as it’s so visceral and ever changing. But honestly, it's the people that keep me coming back and that keep me engaged and interested. How did you feel standing so close to a live volcano? Oddly enough I truly felt at home. At peace.. Like it's something I have been doing for thousands of years. In many ways it felt incredibly calming. You mention peak experiences in your Instagram post – I imagine your work has brought you many – do these happen by chance or are there things, in your experience, we can do to invite them to occur? I think that a “peak” experience is the byproduct of the time you put in. You realize at a certain point that to truly experience the height of something you need to slow down, be patient and really recognize when a moment is special. Sometimes a peak moment won't slap you in the face or excite you right away. You realize it later. It sort of dawns on you. I like to give myself the time and patience to recognize these moments. Rarely, when I do recognize them in “real time” it can feel really special. What does a peak experience feel like to you? It's a moment when your mind and heart and body are all in sync, it’s the certainty of knowing that there is no other place on Earth that I should be right now. Do your peak experiences only occur in epic situations like your visit to the volcano, or, say, while surfing a perfect wave, or can they also occur in everyday life? Everyday life. With my kids, at my property. On my bike commute. It's just the knowledge that a moment is special, will rarely be repeated, and you sort of get a glimpse of the future. And realize I need to cherish this. You talk about the importance of giving yourself the space to experience before shooting – how do you personally approach this? Honestly in some ways it kind of sounds like voodoo, but I truly feel like the way to really experience a place is to make an offering. An offering of time and interest and engagement. Not hiding from its many moods and feelings. Its storms and high winds. That is how you find a connection. You have to go through those things to really feel a place. I firmly believe that if you invest that time into a place and put in that effort, you are rewarded. All images: © Chris Burkard

Passionate runners don’t need an excuse to lace up and head out the door, but having the added motivation of cleaning up our oceans provides a welcome boost! More than five million runners across the world got that by joining Run for the Oceans 2021 and clocking up more than 56 million kilometers to help end plastic waste. The campaign, which ran between May 28 and June 8, is a joint initiative of adidas and its partner Parley, which is an innovative space for thought leaders to come together to save our oceans. Parley’s Global Clean Up Network is dedicated to removing plastic waste from beaches, islands and coastal communities. With every kilometer participants ran, adidas supported the clean up of the equivalent of 10 plastic bottles. After the huge turnout, adidas is now committed to cleaning up 250 tons of plastic waste to prevent it entering our oceans. What a success! Kimi Schreiber hit the trails between May 28 and June 8 to stack up kilometers. It also raises awareness German trail runner, blogger and Suunto athlete Kimi Schreiber participated in the global event and was excited to run a high volume of kilometers to help remove as much plastic waste from the environment as she can. “Sport can change lives and now it’s giving people around the world the chance to get actively involved in helping nature and preserving it,” Kimi says. “I think the most important argument for participating is the issue of attention. With such a large and global event, you can create awareness on a whole new level and bring the issue of environmental pollution into people’s minds.” How to participate Sync Suunto app with adidas Running app and make sure you track every kilometer you run with your Suunto! To sync your Suunto runs with adidas Running, connect your Suunto app account with adidas Running: Open Suunto app and tap “Profile”. Then click on “Connect to other services”. Select adidas Running and enter your adidas Running login details to connect the two apps. Get the adidas Running app here.