Every day for the last month, Greg Hill has got up, put on his skis and put in a hard day's work on the mountain. Sounds fun, except for one thing. Greg is doing all the ascents himself. Hour after hour, day after day, he's been hiking up hills, often in deep snow —always in the deepest backcountry — in a bid to clock an almost super-human target of 100,000 vertical meters.Along the way he's nearly been avalanched, struggled to eat enough food, screamed abuse at himself to keep himself going. But here's the good part — he's also skied some of Canada's finest powder and some incredible mountain lines. But at five days before the month's end, he still had almost 20,000 m to cover. “Access is the biggest hurdle to my goal right now,” he says. “That and a tired body!”Greg isn't just counting the meters on a well-groomed trail with the lightest set-up. He's skiing off the beaten track, in fat skis. And bagging mountain summits. “This is about exploring and pounding vertical in different areas,” Greg told us before setting off. This weekend, Greg will put in one last heroic effort to achieve his goal. “No sun in the forecast and lots of vertical to go,” he blogged on his website.Stay tuned to find out how he got on. You can also check out Greg's latest posts on his Facebook page. main photo: ©zooom.at/Markus Berger

The Northwest Passage, spanning 3,000km from Pond Inlet, Nunavut, to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, was daunting enough when Roald Amundsen became the first person to unlock its secrets back in 1906.Over a century later, a team of ten women will do it a new way — swimming with snorkels. Named the after the Inuit goddess of the sea, the Sedna Expedition will seek to expand our knowledge of what lies beneath the often sub-zero waters, while reaching out to local Inuit and Inuvialuit women and girls, empowering them to build resilient communities to battle climate change. While the swim won't take place until 2016 (route map, top right) this coming summer will see an exploratory mission as Team Sedna boards a 116 expeditionary trawler for a 15-day trip (route map top left). They'll connect with local communities, build team cohesion, test their gear, and prove they can manage the distance. Suunto ambassador Jill Heinerth gives us the lowdown. Snorkeling across the Arctic? Sounds like a crazy plan! The concept for the expedition was the dream of Susan R. Eaton, a Canadian earth scientist and journalist with a passion for educational awareness of global climate change and a deep connection with the indigenous people of the North. Three years ago, after witnessing another sailboat navigate the Northwest Passage Susan had a 'Eureka!' moment: Wouldn’t it be remarkable to swim the Northwest Passage? Why snorkel? Snorkeling (as opposed to SCUBA diving) gives a swimmer a completely different viewpoint. The loss of sea ice is transforming the Arctic rapidly. We’ll be working in the transition zone between the earth, air, water and ice. Everything is the Arctic is driven by what happens in this snorkel zone. It’s the wheat fields of the North, where feeding, mating, predation and migration all take place. What's the plan? We definitely have to do shifts to make the distance. Assuming success during the proof-of-concept expedition, we'll start our epic three-month journey in the summer of 2016. We’ll follow in the esteemed footsteps of European and Canadian explorers, many of whom perished during their attempts to cross the treacherous Northwest Passage.How many people will take part? We have a team of ten remarkable women, aged 26 to 56, taking part in the project supported by a mother ship equipped with two rigid hull boats. The women hail from Canada, the United States, Mexico and New Zealand. Many are world-class technical divers and underwater scientists.What's your personal motivation? To bring science and conservation messages to people in a fun and exciting way. Last summer, I rode my bicycle across Canada, some 7,000 kilometers, and had a remarkable opportunity to connect with citizens of all backgrounds, while sharing a project called “We Are Water.” When people are inspired, it opens up a dialogue that can be life changing for all.The biggest challenge? The biggest challenge is the environment itself. The brutal cold, transient ice conditions and ferocious animal life (polar bears, walrus, orcas, Greenland sharks) all bring risks. How cold will the water be?The water will be as cold as it can get — minus 2 Celsius. We will need to be in the water many times a day and standing watch, completing science missions, making outreach journeys to Inuit communities and filming the entire mission. It is a lot of work for a small group. I think we’ll crash hard at the end of each day!You'll have some help with propulsion. Diver Propulsion Vehicles (DPVs) are also known as “scooters.” A diver or snorkeler can clip herself behind this torpedo-like device and use the motor to help propel her through the water at a faster speed than swimmers could otherwise achieve. This will help us cover ground, battle currents, and get to safety quickly if we encounter a polar bear or other animal that could harm us in the water. Stay tuned for more updates on the Sedna Epic Expedition. For more diving adventures, check out our Facebook fanpage.

The words 'crushed' and 'crashed' may only have a single letter of difference between them, but they have an entirely different meaning. For Greg Hill, 'crushed' is how his body is feeling now that he's over half way to his March Madness goal of 100,000 vertical meters.'Crashed' is what he did to his snowmobile en route to a back country tour last week. Before you worry, the snowmobile prang was a just a small setback on the route to that day's 3,500m of climbing, in which Hill and a few friends toured the Gold Range of Revelstoke, not far from Hill's Canadian home. And while 3,500m of ski touring may seem like a pretty full day to the average backcountry explorer, to Hill, it's just another day in March. Starting March 1st with the highly ambitious goal of a 100k month, Hill has been racking up ascents with the tenacity of a man possessed. Along the way, there have been wicked ski lines – and a few wickedly close calls, such as when Hill set off an avalanche that actually ended up sliding over the same area he'd just skinned up. In hindsight, Hill analyzes the situation and the decision. “I think that part of my goal was clouding my judgement, wanting to set a track that was quicker for me to get vertical, versus harder and more tiring but safely in the rocks,” says Hill. “It was a huge avalanche that swept down 300+ meters. The mountains gave me a stern warning that I should not be too confident out here and be wary. Especially as I push towards my goal,” he tells us.Currently, Hill has accumulated over 60k of his 100k goal, with multiple days of 4,000m+ of vertical, in everything from sunny conditions with fresh powder, to pure, near white-out storm skiing – and while not every day has allowed him to bag a summit, he's scored a few. Overall, the cumulative effort of such an endeavor is starting to catch up with him. “I wondered at what point of this mission that I would wake up completely crushed. Sore, tired and not wanting to get out of bed. Walking down the stairs to let the cat out was painful. I am intimidated by stairs today!”Nevertheless, the crazy Canadian's March Madness is set to continue. After taking the 20th of March to rest, he's already back on the skin trail, going, up, up, up – all the way to 100,000m. Follow Greg Hill's March Madness on his blog. All images ©Bruno Long.

Sooner or later every adventure hits its challenges — and that's proving the case for Greg Hill. The ski mountaineer is almost half way into a 31 day mission to ascend 100,000m and he's been averaging a vertical ascent of over 4,000m a day since the beginning of the month. While lots of snow is good news for those big smile-inducing descents, it's been making the ascents a lot less fun for Greg.  “Days five to seven were really bad and hard days,” he says. “The temperatures were a little warm and the snow very wet, the mountains were going through a state of change and avalanching regularly — some very large. I needed to play it very cautious and stay in the trees. The options were limited and some very uncomfortable days happened.” One of the biggest problems, as Greg's recent Instagram post makes clear, is the build-up of snow under the skis.“It added massive weight and progress was hard. I was screaming really loud obscenities to make myself feel better!” On Sunday Greg took a much-needed rest day to allow for the avalanche danger to subside. “When the dust cleared the skiing has been great. The last two days have been off the charts! Great powder skiing, glaciers, summits and loving the days.” So far Greg is on track but uncertain weather next week is a cause for concern. The body is also holding up for now. “It's as hard as I imagined, requiring me to dig deep. For 10 hours a day I pretty much hike all day with small intervals of great skiing. The body is feeling the repetitive motions —I'm having to do lots of stretching and eating.” One thing that will help Greg in his 'March Madness' quest to ski 100,000m is your support. Follow him via Instagram and Facebook. You can also find more adventure on our own Facebook page. Top picture ©Bruno Long.

Almost a week in to his challenge to ski 100,000m in a month and Greg Hill has put in an amazing performance so far. He's made some big ascents and powered his way through a lot of local powder.“I yearn for bigger summits and more wild lines but the powder has been incredible,” he tells us. In the first four days, Greg has been ski-touring between 9-11 hours a day, covered a daily average of 27km (horizontal distance) but over 4,000m of vertical. There are a lot of mountain lines. On the first day he summited Mt Mackenzie, 2,459m, near Revelstoke. His wife and two kids were there to greet him. “Being able to share my first summit of this challenge with my family was priceless after such an excursion,” says Greg. “Days 2, 3 and 4 have been days of incredible powder skiing - deep and steep lines through trees, pillows and chutes, so it's been fun.” Greg was thinking about putting in a rest day or whether to carry on while conditions were still so good.“It's easy to remain psyched and motivated when every run is so great,” he says. To follow Greg's progress, stay tuned to our Facebook page. We'll be making regular updates.

In between a super busy race schedule, we managed to catch up with the recently voted National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, Kilian Jornet. The Suunto ambassador shares his thoughts on adventure, reveals who his heroes are, and what Apps he never hits the trails without. Congratulations! Thanks! It's great to be an ambassador for running and mountaineering and to see these sports get recognised. And if I can inspire other people to fulfil their dreams, that's really motivating. What are you up to right now? I'm very busy. It's the middle of the ski mountaineering season and I have two world cup races coming up. I'm really doing a lot of meters now for the next month and a half. And then? I go to McKinley (Denali) in June and then Aconcagua in winter to continue my Summits of My Life project. “The summit is just an excuse; it's more about the way, and not the goal.” What is your definition of adventure? Adventure for me is about discovery. It's about going to new places, whether physical places or new sensations that you haven't experienced before. You can go to the high mountains but if you have all the information, it may not be an adventure. Equally, you can go behind your house and if you don't know what's there, then it can turn into an adventure because you're going somewhere unknown. When you want to explore, adventure comes. Do you see yourself as an adventurer? People like to give labels but I don't think like that. I feel like a person who simply loves the mountains.  You have a huge fanbase. But who are your heroes? When I was a kid, I was always looking to the big mountaineers like Walter Bonatti or Reinhold Messner but also people like Ueli Steck are a huge inspiration. Bonatti started the idea of light alpinism and Messner did the same in the Himalayas and Ueli is taking it one step further. The summit is just an excuse; it's more about the way, and not the goal. Favorite App? I use Current Incline for when I'm climbing or skiing, Total Ascent-Descent for counting the meters - I will do up to 700,000 a year - and Vertical Speed. I really like the way I can personalize my Ambit to have just the sports I want.  Next year you plan to climb Mt Everest. After that...? I don't know, I will see what I will do. It's important to have goals but also listen to the feelings of today and stay in the moment. For me, adventure and exploring is more than just achieving a list of things. Get more adventure on our Facebook page. Find out and follow Kilian's next adventures on his website www.kilianjornet.cat.