For ordinary mortals, completing the Hoch Tyrol ski route – with 10,000 m of ascent over 100 km – usually takes six days. The alpine route runs from Kasern, South Tyrol and proceeds from hut to hut, crossing Grossglockner ( 3798 m), Austria’s highest mountain, before finishing in Kals am Grossglockner. Often exposed, with steep climbs, and technical skills required, it’s not for the faint hearted. Suunto ambassadors and mountain athletes Francois D’Haene and Philipp Reiter didn’t have six days. So they decided to complete the epic alpine crossing in one push, on one day. This is what having vertical power provides – epic adventures in a single day. Click here to learn how to improve your vertical speed! © Martina Valmassoi Setting out, the weather didn’t play nice, and they found themselves skiing down a couloir in poor visibility. Their Suunto 9 watches allowed them to safely navigate the white out. The crossing demanded more calories than they anticipated so they ordered big plates of pasta at one of the huts. As they continued, the weather cleared, and they enjoyed some stunning descents. By the time night fell, their tanks were nearly empty, but somehow they reached the end. "I was never as destroyed as when I was fighting my way up to the final peak, Grossglockner," Philipp Reiter says. "I tried to convince my body to keep walking but every 30 steps it just stopped for a few moments before I could push on again. It was a mix of all the pre-planning stress, not enough sleep and physical exhaustion from almost 10.000m+. When we finally reached the summit it was just overwhelming feelings - so happy to have completed our project!" Hit play below to watch their big day out! Lead images: © Philipp Reiter

Sports scientist, coach and blogger Susi Kraft grew up in the Austrian Alps and fell in love with ski mountaineering early. Her dad was her first skiing coach, and since studying sports science at university she’s been fascinated by how to train to get faster. “Being faster makes it more fun, means you can climb more mountains, and gives you more options,” Susi says. “It also means you have safer conditions, lower avalanche risk, if you head out in the early morning and are fast enough to get back before midday when it usually gets warmer and changes the snowpack. Being faster also makes it possible to climb high mountains in one push – without the need to sleep in a hut.” Every opportunity, Susi is out in the mountains around Salzburg. The most beautiful and demanding Susi is one half of the popular German language skimo blog Berghasen, which covers gear, training to tips, and awesome tours in the Alps. She coaches everything from trail runners and triathletes through to ski mountaineers. Getting faster at skimo is one of the most challenging things to achieve because it’s such a demanding sport. “There are so many factors,” she says. “Endurance, technique for uphill and downhill, the environment, snow, mountains, cold, avalanche risk, fuelling, what to drink, and safety. The sport demands a lot of experience in advance. There are a lot of factors to staying safe and getting better. That’s why for me it’s the most beautiful sport, but one of the hardest to achieve the next level.” Read on for Susi’s six tips to improve your uphill skimo speed. Follow the 80/20 rule “With skimo it’s really hard to train carefully because as soon as you go uphill your heart rate peaks,” Susi says. “It’s easy to slip into high intensity training and then over time your improvements will start to plateau. Also, having to carry much more gear in comparison to other sports such as trail running makes it really hard to train at lower intensity.” Skiing and avalanche equipment, a backpack with food and drink, ski clothing and helmet all add up the weight to make the sport demand more strength and power, and to make it tough, especially for beginners, to keep the heart rate down. Susi recommends following the polarised training model propounded by sports scientist Dr. Stephen Seiler. This is based on Seiler’s research that found the best endurance athletes do most of their training at low intensity. It suggests 80 % of training should be done at low intensity, and only 20 % at high intensity. A key factor in getting a feeling about your training intensity is knowing your maximum heart rate. It can be determined by doing a lactate performance diagnostic test on a treadmill or bicycle ergometer. Your heart rate is the easiest way to monitor your training intensity and can be used in most sports. If you already know your maximum heart rate you can follow these training suggestions: Train at least 80 % of the training at low intensity – about 70 % of your maximum heart rateMaximum 20 % of your training volume should be high intensity – about 80 to 100 % of your maximum heart rate To sum it up, follow this rule: do a lot of training in your comfort zone with low heart rate and a little bit of your training at really high intensity with your heart rate close to your maximum. Reduce weight As we mentioned before, skimo involves a lot of gear, and the weight of all that gear and provisions slows you down or increases your heart rate. Looking for ways to cut that down is essential. Susi recommends investing in lighter skis and ski boots as a start, and then looking into what other lighter weight gear you can find. “If you really reduce weight you will notice your heart rate doesn’t get as high,” Susi says. “You will be able to do longer and more demanding climbs and you won’t get fatigued so quickly. Your recovery time after a long skimo day will also be less if your training session isn’t that intense.” Embrace the flat To help avoid slipping into high intensity training tours, look for maps and routes that don’t have so much elevation gain and avoid steep uphills. “Look for terrain with just moderate steepness,” Susi says. “It will help to keep your heart rate down. Try to keep the inclination as low as possible, and use it as a warm up. Then keep some capacity for the last part of the mountain.” Another option for low intensity training is doing some of your sessions on the bike outdoors or indoors on a bicycle ergometer. With biking it’s easier keeping the intensity low and the heart rate down than while running or ski mountaineering, Susi says. Mix it up If you’re having trouble keeping your heart rate in a low intensity zone on your tours, then mix it up and improve your base fitness by doing low intensity running in flat terrain and cycling. Remember, elite athletes like Kilian Jornet spent years working on their base. There are no shortcuts. Take your time and enjoy the process. Build strength Strength and core training are important for any sports, as they improve physical performance and are a key factor in preventing injuries like ruptures of ligaments in your knee. “With more strength in your legs and core, uphill climbing will get easier,” Susi says. “Do two strength sessions a week with higher loads and don’t forget about core training!” For building up muscles in your legs Susi recommends doing at least three sets of eight to 12 repetitions of: box jumps squats lunges leg press deadlifts hip thrusters Beginners should do these exercises without additional weight. “The more experienced in strength training you get, the more additional weight you may use”, Susi says. Use barbells, kettlebells, dumbbells, weights plates or sandbags to intensify your strength training. If you want to work on your core-stability and upper body d o exercises like push-ups, planking (frontal and side), good mornings, bridging or sit-ups. Check out Susi’s blog for more inspiration on core exercises. The articles are in German, but you can see the images here. Do HIIT training As mentioned, at least 80 % of your endurance training should be done at low intensity at around 70 % of your maximum heart rate. So what about the remaining 20 % of your training volume? For athletes with a long history in low intensity training and for people with an excellent endurance base, high intensity interval training (HIIT) may improve your endurance even more. “Just use a little bit to spice up your long and low intensity sessions, but don’t push it”, Susi cautions. “One or two sessions per week during the preparation for your competition or season highlight are totally fine.” High intensity interval training is characterised by short and intense periods of exercise followed by less intense recovery periods where you continue the exercise with lower intensity. For example, running at maximum speed for one minute followed by easy running for one minute, and repeating this 15 times. “As high intensity interval training is really intense the sessions usually have a shorter duration compared to ordinary and low intensity endurance training,” Susi says. “Keeping it to 25 to 40 minutes of hard intervals is totally fine.” Follow one these HIIT regimens for skimo: 30 x 30 seconds at maximum intensity followed by 30 seconds of active rest at low intensity15 x 1 minutes intervals at maximum intensity followed by 1 minute of active rest8 x 3 minutes intervals at high intensity followed by 3 minutes of active rest (low intensity)5 x 4 minutes intervals at high intensity followed by 3 minutes of active rest4 x 5 minutes at high intensity followed by 5 minutes at low intensity3 x 8 minutes at high intensity followed by 5 minutes at low intensity Note: start your HIIT with a 10 minutes warm-up and a 10 minutes cool down at low intensity. The day after a high intensity session you should schedule a rest day or an easy recovery session. All images: © www.berhasen.com

With Suunto World Vertical Week 2022 around the corner (March 14-20), we reached out to Austrian ski mountaineer, sport scientist and coach Susi Kraft and asked about what goes into getting faster vertically. Susi is one half of the Berghasen, an awesome German-language blog covering everything you need to know about ski touring: training tips, tours, gear and so on. Like many Austrians, Susi grew up in the mountains, began skiing as a child and got into ski touring at university, and more recently trail running. Now the 29-year-old can’t stop. “With sports science I got deep insights into how training really works,” she says. “It made me rethink my own training.” The tendency, Susi says, among endurance athletes is to slip into doing too much high intensity training, even when they know they shouldn’t. And this is further compounded by vertical speed training because climbing steep gradients radically elevates heart rate. Why improving vertical speed is hard “It’s hard to train your aerobic base when you go uphill,” she says. “When your body isn’t used to endurance efforts, your heart rate increases quickly, the intensity gets turned up, your lactate levels start to max, which means the pH value in the body starts to fall. If it gets too low, the muscles and respiration don’t work economically anymore.” On top of this, while doing a lot of high intensity hill training can give short term gains, in the long term it can actually worsen your performance. So how to improve your vertical speed without blowing yourself out? Read on for Susi’s four tips and three training plans below! Susi trains in the mountains around Salzburg. © Berghasen Good things take time Suunto ambassador and mountain athlete Kilian Jornet is the Rolls Royce engine of vertical speed. We’d all like to be able to power uphill like he does. But Susi points something out we easily forget; Kilian got to where he is because he spent a decade or more training his base fitness, and that is achieved through low intensity training, not going overboard on hill repeats. “It takes patience to train your base,” Susi says. “You need a year, five years, or even longer to really accomplish that. The better your training, the better your base, the better your body will be able to handle intense exercise. So take the time to train your body to work economically. When you have a good base, you will be better able to do uphill training!” Embrace the flat This sounds counterintuitive, right? You might be thinking how you’ll ever get better sticking to flat terrain. Susi has a reply: “Flat training is important because it’s not that intense,” she explains. “You should combine terrain – half on flat, half in the hills. World class athletes never stop training their base, they just carefully combine it with more intense sessions.” Build strength If you’re really serious about wanting to improve vertical speed, then there’s no skipping legs day at the gym. Strength training for the lower and upper body are essential to getting faster. “The stronger you are, the easier it becomes,” Susi says. “If you can keep your upper body stable, your legs and arms can work more efficiently. This is really important for pushing uphill for a long time.” Improve your technique “Technique is really important for any sport you’re doing uphill. “You need to find the most economic way to move your body. I suggest practicing your technique on the flat so you can really focus on it without feeling exhausted.” Beginner, advanced and expert training plans Susi suggests following one of these plans for two weeks, then have a rest week with one to two additional rest days. Repeat the plan for several weeks with slowly increasing the length of the sessions after week six. Beginner Monday: Off day Tuesday: Core and mobility training Wednesday: 30 min run before breakfast at low intensity (70 % of your max heart rate). Thursday: Off day Friday: Strength training: legs and upper body Saturday: 30 min running or 40 min cycling at low intensity (70 % of your max heart rate). Sunday: 1,5h biking or 2 h hiking/skimo at low intensity Advanced Monday: Core stability followed by general strength training (hypertrophy) for legs and upper body. Flexibility exercises for cool down. Tuesday: Fartlek (interval) workout: 1 km at 60 % of your max heart rate then 1 km at 85 % of your max heart rate. Repeat five times. 10 min easy jog cool down. Wednesday: 45 min run before breakfast at low intensity (70 % of you max heart rate). Thursday: Off day Friday: Core stability followed by general strength training (hypertrophy) for legs and upper body. Flexibility exercises for cool down. Saturday: 60 min running or 2 h cycling at low intensity (70 % of you max heart rate). Sunday: 2,5h biking or 3 h hiking/skimo at low intensity Expert Monday: Core stability followed by general strength training (hypertrophy) for legs and upper body. Flexibility exercises for cool down. Tuesday: Fartlek (interval) workout: 1 km at 70 % of your max heart rate then 1 km at 85 % of your max heart rate. Repeat five times. 10 min easy jog cool down. Wednesday: 50 min run before breakfast at low intensity (70 % of you max heart rate). Thursday: Off day Friday: Core stability followed by general strength training (hypertrophy) for legs and upper body. Flexibility exercises for cool down. Saturday: 80 min running or 2 h cycling at low intensity (70 % of you max heart rate). Sunday: 2,5h biking or 3 h hiking/skimo at low intensity. During the workout: 5x3 min. at 90 % of your maximum heart rate with at least 3 min. of easy jog between the 3 min. intervals Lead images: © Berghasen

A winter riding camp somewhere warm, like Mallorca or Madeira, would have been the norm just a year ago. Not anymore! We had to look the other way for an adventure ride – to the cold, wild north. Follow us on a wintery two-wheeled adventure from Suunto HQ to the magical landscape of Kiilopää in Finnish Lapland. Watch now! Rails to trails, a weekend of winter bikepacking in Lapland, Finland. Magical riding amongst the snow ghosts at Kiilopää, Finland. Better keep moving! Good times at the hut in the evening. The riders: Timo Veijalainen, Antti-Pekka Laiho and Erkki Punttila. All images by Jaakko Posti Photography Video by Joonas Vinnari / Kona Bikes

Spending time on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands for the last few months has given Sami Sauri the outlet she needs. Staying at a friend’s retreat centre, she’s been out surfing and cycling whenever she can. Life indoors doesn’t come easily to her. “Normally I escape from thinking and being alone with myself and that’s why I do big trips because at least you’re sitting on a bike and not sitting in your apartment looking at the ceiling,” Sami says. “Stuck at home in Girona during the lockdown my head just exploded. So I took leave from work and escaped to the mountains in summer 2020. That didn’t make much difference so I went back to what I love most, the sea. So I’m travelling back and forward between Girona and Fuerteventura.” The new Suunto ambassador is at her best on epic adventure rides, like the one she did with a crew of friends in 2018 across the US via Route 66, or, that same year, the 1500 km ride of the Trans Labrador Highway in Canada. The 29-year-old Spainard has adventure cycled all over the place, and has her sights set on riding in Kenya and France next – when life returns to normal. “The trips I’ve been on have helped me a lot,” Sami says. “You’re sitting on a bike and seeing life go by and you have a lot of time to think about things. Sometimes it’s so monotonous that it’s harder mentally than physically. It taught me a lot about how to be and move forward in life.” Sami is a self admitted “wild child” who skipped school whenever she could, and left home when she was 17 to lead her own life. She changed styles with the seasons, and landed her first job at a skate and surf shop. Things really changed for the better in 2010 when Sami laid her eyes upon a friend’s fixed gear bike. They were out in Barcelona, her hometown, meeting for a drink and her friend rolled up on the bike. Impressed that it didn’t have brakes, Sami had a try and instantly fell in love. She saved up and bought her own. “It was the shittest bike ever, but I loved it,” she says. “Every single night after school I’d go out riding to learn how to skid, which is how to brake without brakes. I’d ride through the traffic like crazy. Thanks to that bike I discovered so many places in my city. I would have never seen them without a bike. It really opened my eyes.” Now on Fuerteventura, waiting for the pandemic to pass, heading out surfing, trail running or cycling whenever she can, Sami tracks all her activities with her Suunto 9. “Suunto has every single sport mode you can imagine,” she says. “Now I take my bike and go to the beach, track my cycling, jump in the water, track my surfing, it’s perfect. For someone like me who combines sports, Suunto is the way to go. I have it with me all the time.” All images: © Sergio Villalba

The Austrian management guru Peter F. Drucker said it well: “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.” Put another way, without a clear plan, there’s no real commitment. It’s the same with training. We need a goal and a plan to reach it. Otherwise, the risk is we keep on doing the same old thing. If we do aim to improve our performance, we must know where we’re going and how to get there. “A training plan doesn’t have to start directly at the beginning of a year, but it’s a good time for making plans and setting new goals,” says Austrian sport scientist, coach and athlete Susi Kraft. Susi is one half of the Berghasen, an awesome German-language blog covering everything you need to know about ski touring: training tips, tours, gear and so on. We caught up with the passionate mountain lover and asked what goes into a good training plan. Read on for Susi’s six tips. Susi works and plays in the stunning mountains around Salzburg. © Berghasen Take the long view You might be wondering whether you really need to have a plan for the whole year. The answer is yes if you want to have an optimal training year and achieve your goals. Susi explains why: “When designing a training plan you normally define one or two personal highlights in the training year,” she says. “At those events your physical performance should be at the highest level.” Once the highlights are decided you then distribute every single workout/training session across your calendar. Sport scientists like Susi call this process training periodization, which has three phases: 1. Base period2. Pre-competition period3. Competition period “A smart training periodization is only possible if you have an overview of the whole year and the athlete highlights factored in,” Susi says. “Besides that you also have to factor in your personal life, like family, holidays, work, weddings, kids and so on.” Select your highlights Without a goal, it’s easy to lose direction. When thinking about your next goal, use the acronym as a guide, SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. Specific: Well defined, clear, and unambiguousMeasurable: With specific criteria that measure your progress toward the accomplishment of the goalAchievable: Attainable and not impossible to achieveRealistic: Within reach, realistic, and relevant to your life purposeTimely: With a clearly defined timeline, including a starting date and a target date. The purpose is to create urgency. “The training plan itself should always be orientated around a goal you want to achieve,” Susi says. “That goal could be a trail running competition, finishing your first triathlon, climbing Mont Blanc or losing weight. Setting new goals and working with a specific training plan keeps motivation high. That’s what I see when working with my athletes.” Consider this “The no pain, no gain approach to training is really outdated, “ Susi says. “30 years ago experts in sports science didn’t always know how to train right. What we know now is that the best endurance athletes don’t train so hard – most of their training is at low intensity.” Take a moment to think about that before creating a plan to achieve your goal. This is especially important if you have a tendency to push yourself hard. A gentler approach may serve you better. “A lot of people I see try to get better really fast,” Susi says. “They train really hard, really long distances. You may get better quickly, but in the long term that’s really bad for the body and for the training programme. Some people actually get worse, become overtrained or are prone to injuries.” Don’t copy and paste Oh, the internet. We can find countless training plans and make them our own. Thing is, cutting corners like that might not give you the results you wish for. “If you just copy last year’s or someone else’s training plan it won’t account for possible improvements in your training status,” Susi says. “Your plan should always be built on your current endurance, strength and other skills. That’s why it is so important to do performance diagnostics regularly and before you start working with a new training plan or coach.” Avoid these classic mistakes Susi says people tend to fall into two camps. Those that go overboard and do too much high intensity training too soon, and those that like routine and do the same workouts every week. “Really think about intensity distribution in your plan,” Susi says. “The risk is, that you do the same stuff every week. That mistake may lead to slower progress, monotony or even overtraining because you didn’t consider rest day and rest weeks. Most people tend to train too hard over several weeks or months. Over a whole year this may lead to chronic exhaustion.” Don’t be that guy. Follow this planning flow Set goals / highlights Analyze your current physical status – endurance, strength, stability, speed, balance – by doing physical performance tests. The outcome is influenced by your training history. Also consider how much experience a person has and determine your training age, meaning how many years of endurance training, strength training you’ve done and how many years of specific training in the sport you want to compete in. How often and what exactly is your training programme (hours, km, what kind of sports etc.) Which weaknesses do you have? What are the main factors we need to approve? How much time do you have to achieve your goal? Determine the training periodization over the time window you have available. Carefully and realistically distribute the training intensity across the calendar Plan single blocks or training sessions Lead images: © Berghasen