Finding out where Philipp Reiter is these days isn’t hard – you just have to visit the Red Bull Der Lange Weg tracking page. Finding a time when he can talk to you, however? Not easy – two AM starts, 15-hour days, and thousands of kilometers combined with tens of thousands of height meters make him one very tired ski tourer. As the end of the adventure approaches, we managed to get him on the phone – and here’s what we found out.     His feet really, really hurt. “They’re really swollen,” says Philipp. “Everyday, the feet get a little bigger – but the ski boot stays the same size.” Ouch, we can imagine. And since they’re lightweight, carbon-fiber racing shells, there’s not much room for re-molding the fit – Philipp’s got to suffer through it.   They decide everything themselves. “All decisions are ours – we get a lot of information from different sources, but there’s no one telling us what we should and shouldn’t do.” And that’s as it should be – while the goal of the adventure was to closely follow the route of the original Austrian team from 1971, safety was tantamount – and bad weather meant they had to adapt the route to their own.     Philip and David owned the first ten days. The team of seven split the route into four parts - Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France. Since Austria is Philipp’s backyard (he lives just over the border in Bad Reichenhall, Germany), he and friend David Wallner provided the whole crew with beta and route guidance for that part. Italian Tamara Lunger covered Italy, Swiss skier Bernhard Hug covered Switzerland, and Americans Mark and Janelle Smiley covered France.   There’s no time really alone. If they want to hit the reset button – well, forget it. As soon as the hiking or skiing is finished for the day, it’s a meal with the crew, logistics, prepping, planning, and of course, as much sleep as you can squeeze in before those two AM starts. “There’s no mental break or time for yourself,” says Philipp. “That’s for sure the hardest part.”   They’ve seen a few slides. With such a journey, avalanche danger is of course a key concern – and plenty of weather systems made that concern even worse. “We had a huge detour due to avalanche danger in South Tirol,” says Philipp. “On a slope that wasn’t even very steep, we set off a small slide. Since the avalanche danger that day was rated four, which is ‘high’, we decided to add a lot of kilometers and go around a mountain rather than over it.”     He hasn’t really used any ‘joker’ km. In 1971, the team traveled 61 kilometers in total by car – so the athletes in 2018 were theoretically allowed the same distance, a ‘wild card’ if you will. While they occasionally had to drive to find a campsite, they always drove back to where they started from, keeping the journey pure. The longest car ride happened with conditions meant summit Mt Blanc from the Italian side was impossible – so they hopped in a car, ascended to near the top of Mt Blanc (they turned back 100m under the summit in whiteout conditions) and then drove back to Courmayeur to continue their journey west.   He can barely remember the first week… After 34 days on ‘Der Lange Weg’, Reiter says he really can’t remember that first week – “It’s simply been overwritten”, he says. “I can’t believe how fast it’s gone.”   But he knows he won’t do it again. “I’m just not sure I’ll ever have the time – it’s not only the trip, it’s the training,” says Reiter. “I’ve never been so fit in my life, but all that training took up so much time.”     With just a couple days left in the journey, the crew is eyeing to finish before 10 AM on day 36 – stay tuned to the Red Bull Der Lange Weg Facebook page to catch the final moments!   Images by Philipp Reiter / Red Bull Content Pool  

Let’s get things straight right away: there is virtually nothing pleasant about busting your legs and lungs up and down a single 1000-foot (about 300m) ski slope for 24 hours, non-stop. There might, however, be a little bit of pleasure in knowing you can do more laps on said slope than anyone in the world – a pleasure, we can assure you, that belongs wholly and solely to Mike Foote, aged 34, of nearby Missoula, Montana. Well established in both the worlds of skimo racing and ultra-running, he was perhaps the perfect person for the challenge – he had the skill and technique on skis, and physical and mental endurance that it takes to run 100-mile races. Last summer he finished second at Hardrock 100 in Colorado. Mike spent months training to dial in his optimum race speed – and masterminded the logistics of race day with a support crew, plenty of calories on hand to keep him going, and a little help from the mountain operations team who kept the ski slope in prime condition. To learn more, read the words below from the (probably still tired) man himself. Mike's Suunto Spartan Ultra says it all. So, what was your total vert for the day? What was the old record? I did 61,200 feet (18,654m). It was 60 laps of a 1,020 ft (311m) slope. There are essentially two records of someone who completed 60,000 ft in the past. Ekkehard Dörschlag did 60,000 feet on the dot in 2009 in Austria at a 24-hour event at Bad Gastein. Then the famous ski mountaineer racer Florent Perrier did 59,893 feet in 2011 in Areche, France in the Alps. These were the two efforts that felt like the benchmark for me. Skiing into the night. (©Matthew Irving) When and where did you set the record? I started at 9 am on Saturday, March 17th and went until Sunday morning at 9 am. I did it at Whitefish Mountain Resort, which is a ski area where I used to ski patrol and began uphill skiing and backcountry skiing. Conditions were variable. Quite warm and mashed-potato type snow during the day, and then frozen and slippery hard-pack at night. It made for challenging conditions for skinning, but we were able to manage it all OK. Could you walk us through the day? My plan for the day was quite simple. I really wanted to start conservative, but at the same time not slow down too much. I was able to get around 33,500 ft in the first 12 hours, which gave me a buffer for the latter half of the day. I worked really hard to limit any downtime. I didn’t sit down once in the 24 hours. For the most part, things went as planned. The snow froze hard at night, which made for really tricky skinning and teeth chattering descents. As a team, we worked through it and I had pacers working to keep the skin track in and not too iced up. I started the day off feeling pretty poor actually. Perhaps it was nerves, but it took me almost two hours to feel like I was getting into any sort of rhythm. Also in the middle of the night, I hit a wall and had to work really hard to keep from slowing down too much. Once the sun came up for the final 2 hours I got some energy back. For the final lap, about 15 friends joined me to celebrate and it gave me an insane boost of energy and I was able to complete one of my fastest laps of the day! Friends’ support gave Mike an extra boost of energy. (©Matthew Irving) When and how did you get this idea to go for the record? I began thinking about it after racing the Hardrock 100 last summer. I enjoy long endurance events like 100 Mile running races, but ski-mountaineering races are often only in the one to two hours range. I wanted to see what I could do on skis in twenty-four hours, and this idea began to form. How did you prepare for the record attempt? By skiing a lot! And also by geeking out on training and metrics. I spent a lot of time going up and down steep slopes trying to get my technique and form as efficient as possible and to try and find the best ascent rates while staying in an easy aerobic effort. I knew I would need to be very comfortable going uphill for a very long time without blowing up, so I spent a lot of time finding that fine balance. My Suunto Spartan Ultra was the perfect tool for this. After ski. (©Matthew Irving) How would you compare a 100-mile ultra-running race, like the Hardrock, and this record ski tour? Well, the mental grit it took to get to the end of the 24-hour attempt felt similar to a 100-mile race. There were highs and lows and everything in between as I have experience in ultras. However, this effort felt so different from something like Hardrock 100 as I was racing a clock and not another competitor. It wasn’t better or worse. Just a different kind of challenge. It was just me and a mountain and I had twenty-four hours to see how many times I could climb it. It was a very simple goal in many ways.

For the truly competitive athlete, every loss or DNF is a tough one. But there have likely been very few losses tougher than Canadian ultra-runner Gary Robbins’ result 2017 Barkley Marathons. After nearly 60 hours of racing, a missed turn in the last moments took him off the course as he approached the finish. He crossed the finish line from the wrong direction, a few seconds after the 60-hour time limit. It was unequivocally a DNF – and probably the most heartbreaking DNF in the history of DNFs. It’s the kind of result that has a less willful runner saying ‘never again’. Gary Robbins, of course, is not the kind of runner, and after a quick recovery – he ran the Nolan’s Fourteens just a few months later – he was back on the Barkley horse. After last year’s dramatic non-finish, Gary hit his saturation point talking about the race – no, really, he even told us so – so we figured we’d better focus on this year’s race. Read on to find out how his training and preparation is going.   Third time training for the Barkley Marathon: What’s different? Through the first two years, I was definitely on the starting line with the physical and mental capabilities to finish the race. My training has been successful. I don’t believe that there was anything in my training for the first few years that I had to alter. But I did find that by focusing on this specific race for so long, that had me moving through difficult terrain at 2 miles per hour, I got really efficient at moving 2 miles per hour – so I haven’t done much run training for the last few years. So, when I got back into my training in November my focus was on more run training. I got back into more 100-mile distance weeks, rather than vertical-based weeks for a couple of months in the winter. It helped to increase my fitness level. Last month the focus has shifted to 100% vertical training. Initially 20,000ft of climbing, then 30,000ft, and last week 40,000ft of climbing. So I did change my training a bit initially to gain some fitness that I felt I was lacking. But the actual training block leading into the last Barkley worked so well that I’m actually looking at replicating that again.   Ready to go from dawn till dusk – and much much longer. (©Ian Corless, iancorless.com)   Last year the race kicked your ass. How do you plan to deal with it on the course? The race kicked my ass both years. Last year, getting through the full 60 hours and the full five laps of the course was infinitely harder than even doing four laps. John Kelly even mentioned that there’s such a steep curve of fatigue and difficulty and pain threshold that it’s unfathomable how much more difficult doing the additional lap could be. I came out of that even more physically and mentally beat up. But – I recovered from the ass kicking very well in 2017. Well enough that only a few months later I went to Colorado and finished the Nolan 14’s, which is 14 consecutive 14,000 ft peaks in under 60 hours. That was the big difference in 2017 – that I recovered well after the race. In 2016 I really struggled for 6 to 8 months afterwards because I had done so much before the 2016 race. For the better part of 10 months, I have been healthy fit, been a runner, and feeling good about things which set me up to be able to withstand that ass-kicking this time.   Any non-traditional training? Nothing non-traditional. Definitely kept focusing on orienteering and cross-training with strength training, things that I feel that are big components for success at the race. There is a large element of core and upper body strength that comes into play with a race like this – and moving smarter allows you to move a little bit slower because every mistake that you make means you need to move faster to make up for it. So, the better you can be with navigation, the more luxury you can give yourself with time on course.   Do you feel like you’re in better physical shape? I could be in the best shape that I’ve been in going into any of the Barkley’s. I had a couple of setbacks in training – getting sick, and we lost our dog which we had for 12 years so that set me back emotionally for a little bit. But outside of those setbacks, I feel like this is one of the best training blocks that I’ve had in many, many years. My fitness is reflecting that. If things continue to go well I could show up at the Barkley in the best shape I have been in.   How about mental fitness – how do you train for a rest like this mentally? Every long-distance race gets to a point where the race is completely impossible if you’re not all in mentally. For the Barkley it’s true, but it’s true much earlier. It’s impossible to complete even a single lap without it becoming mentally draining. I’ve proven to myself in the first two attempts that I have the mental wherewithal to push through. That gives me a level of comfort, beyond year one fear of the unknown and year two fear of what I did know, I feel like this year three I have a lot less worry at how that’s going to play out. I’m almost looking forward to the mental challenge because it is so unique for this race. In training I try to replicate that challenge – I don’t train with a partner because you need to become self-sufficient and to learn how to motivate and rally yourself in the low times.   Who else has a strong chance of winning or finishing? That’s an interesting question because they don’t release a starters list. So you don’t know who is in the race unless that person publicly proclaims that they are. There is a waitlist that they pull from and you do get to see the people that they select from the waitlist. In terms of the first 40 people selected, I only know about 4-5 people who may be doing the race. I know a few people who have had to pull out of the race for one reason or another. The other thing to keep in mind is that it’s not within the rules to speak about someone else’s Barkley aspirations unless they have made it quite public. So what I can say is that the race initially had a very high level of runner, and potentially the highest level of female runners they have ever seen with many recognized and hugely accomplished runners. The hope was that we were going to see a female fun runner (3 laps), a female onto the 4th lap or even finish all 5 laps this year. But a few have had to pull out for one reason or another. There is one name that I can say because everyone knows that he is in the race because he qualified by winning one of race organizer Lance’s other races. That’s French runner Guillaume Calmettes. He is a good friend that I’ve known for many years. He’s a staunch competitor and a wonderful person who I’m looking forward to potentially spending some time with during the race. He’s never been to Frozen Head before (the location of Barkley Marathons) so he is a complete virgin.   Will this be Gary's final Barkley?   Your fans are asking and I’m sure your family as well, if you win is it the last one - or will you keep coming back?  The joke I made when during the “Where Dreams Go To Die” movie tour was that I hope you can tell that I love my wife and I want to stay married to her. So this is one and done. Truly, I have a lot of other goals that I’d like to pursue that have been taking a back seat to completing the Barkley. Not only has this taken longer than anticipated, it’s taken more out of me. I don’t have a desire to be a multi-time finisher of the Barkley. I want to be a finisher above all else and when that does happen I would be very happy to return to the park, hang out in the campground and mock those who head out on to the course for the weekend.   We know that you use Suunto watches for training but can’t use a gps watch during the race. Anything change in your 2018 gear or kit? Over the first two years, I’ve run in the Salomon Sense Pro, because that shoe was the best fit for me. I had some issues with traction, but my feet held out because it was the best fit for my foot. I really wanted a more aggressive tread on a shoe for this race. Along came the Sense Ride in Fall 2017, and I put it on my foot and it’s my dream shoe for trail running. It fits perfectly and the lug on it is so nice. So one of the few changes I’m making this year is going with the Sense Ride footwear from Salomon.  The only other change to really report is that through the first two years I only used music in the last lap when I knew I would run alone. But I love music and enjoy listening to music when I’m running, doing difficult things or lacking motivation. Over the last few months, I have been building out my music systems with different MP3 players and Bluetooth headphones. I intend to use music much more readily throughout the race to assist in keeping my mind in a positive state. I haven’t done that before and I’m curious to see the benefits.   Music assists Gary in keeping his mind in a positive state.   Sweet – so what's on your playlist for getting through Barkley 2018? Old school Beastie Boys is right up there near that top of my list. Certainly some Tragically Hip. There will be some Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave mixed in there. I like a good 90s playlist – when George Michael “Freedom” comes on, for some reason, my step kicks up a notch. Probably some Beck.   ‘Where Dreams Go To Die’ has been all over the ultra-running community. How has re-living one of your toughest life challenges been? The film itself, though, I only watched for the first time two days before the first showing. I didn’t realize how deeply seeded the scaring actually was. I believed before going on tour that I would watch it two or three times and rationalize it and be fine. But that wasn’t the case. I never got the point where I was able to watch it without becoming upset. In hindsight, looking back at that film tour, that was such an incredibly unique and special experience that I’m so thankful for. It was a huge commitment, tens of thousands of dollars, and we took a real calculated risk in the belief that it would work. And it did. The experience itself was exceptional and I would do it ten times out of ten. The further we got into the showings, we were more and more sleep deprived, which leaves you more emotionally raw. There were some really rough nights, where I was doing everything in my power not to become upset again for the seventh time. It was unexpected. It provided valuable insight into what my family went through in camp while I was on the course. That more than anything gave me more fuel to know that we are all in as a family. They are so invested in every moment of that race with me. It’s not just me out there. It’s me, my wife and my child that are trying to get this done.   Stay tuned for a follow-up report after Gary’s third (and hopefully final!) Barkley Marathons. In the meantime you can watch Where Dreams Go To Die here. Main image © Ian Corless, iancorless.com

There are a couple interesting FKTs happening in the world right now. You might have heard about Ryan Sandes' epic across the Himalayas – but you might not have heard of Red Bull Der Lange Weg. In case you don’t speak German, we’ll translate that for you: the long way. The long way across what? The Alps – from Vienna to Nice. Over 2,000 kilometers and 80,000 height meters. The time to do it? 40 days. While they hope to spend most of their time on skis, they’ll also be moving on foot, climbing technical terrain, and doing whatever is necessary to make their traverse happen via human propulsion.   Der Lange Weg starts on Saturday, 17 March. (©Sandra Birklbauer, Red Bull Content Pool)   If you think this sounds absolutely brutal, you’d be right – some of the itinerary includes days with almost 4,000 of climbing and 80+ km of horizontal travel, and takes the athletes to the top of the Alps – including Dachstein, Grossglockner, Piz Palü, Mt Blanc, and a few other famous peaks. No rests. No pauses. At least they don’t have to camp. (That’s… assuming they make it to the hut. If they don’t make it to the hut by dark? Well… we’re going to guess they keep going.) The crew of seven includes four Suunto athletes – Mark and Janelle Smiley from the US, Philip Reiter from Germany, and Nuria Picas from Spain – each one of them extremely accomplished athletes in their own right.   The original crew that skied from Vienna to Nice in 1971. (©Klaus Hoi, Red Bull Content Pool)   What’s perhaps most interesting before the challenge start is the story of those who came before them – almost 50 years ago, an Austrian team of four embarked on this adventure, with big questions about whether they could finish. While Robert Kittl, Klaus Hoi, Hansjoerg Farbmacher and Hans Mariacher were using the most modern ski gear of their time, it’s a far cry from what’s underfoot today – not to mention the advances in outerwear, layering, and of course, the gadgetry that helps us navigate. The adventure was well documented for its time, and Red Bull shared a few of the photos that you can see here. Extremely impressive stuff!   The planned route for Red Bull Der Lange Weg will have any number of difficult days – but some are a lot longer, harder and higher than others. We picked out a few highlights for you.   Grossglocker After 5 days of 2000+ height meters in the first week alone, one of the first big days will be the top of Austria – Grossglockner. They’ll need to ascend a total of 3600m over 38km, reaching an altitude of 3,454 – meaning the air will start to get thin.   Diavalozhütte On day 19, they’ll spend 12 hours in ski boots picking up 3300hm and 55 kilometers. Two days later, they’ll cover 71km in a day.   The last blast: Casteldelfino to Entraque Just two days before the finish, there’s one last big push: 3,276 height meters and 81 kilometers, and 15 hours on foot.   1,917 kilometers, 85,000 height meters The cumulative numbers here are just mental – they’ll take an estimated 420 hours to traverse almost two thousand kilometers, and pick up 85,000 estimated height meters (and we’re going to guess quite a few more here and there.) That’s like climbing Everest from sea level 9.5 times – up and down, day in, day out, 40 days in a row.   Sound awesome? It absolutely is. Will they finish? Even the athletes themselves can’t be positive – bad weather, injury, equipment issues can put a stop to the adventure at any time.         Find out what Mark Smiley packed for this epic skitour!        Learn more about Red Bull Der Lange Weg

WHICH COUNTRY CLIMBS THE MOST? No big surprises here. The Austrians took the top spot again by a clear margin: on average they climbed almost a hundred meters higher than any other nation. Congratulations! Also Switzerland was once again very strong: they have placed in the top three in the World Vertical Week ranking every year. Overall the top four was dominated by people living in countries with the Alps. The popularity of ski touring, once again the activity with the most average ascent, surely contributes to these countries’ ranking. Which country climbs the most? (average ascent per activity, top 20 countries) Austria 472 m Switzerland 375 m Italy 360 m Slovenia 338 m Slovakia 281 m Spain 263 m Norway 255 m France 250 m Portugal 229 m Germany 222 m The Czech Republic 210 m Mexico 189 m South Africa 177 m Singapore 176 m Canada 170 m New Zealand 169 m The United States 167 m Hungary 161 m Republic of Korea 151 m Sweden 150 m BUT WHAT ABOUT THE DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES? WHO CLIMBS THE MOST? We tracked all human-powered outdoor sports and looked at eight of them more closely: running, trail running, trekking, mountaineering, cycling, mountain biking, ski touring and cross-country skiing. A special shout-out goes to Japan and Italy: they both were on top in two different activity rankings. Italy even managed to get six top fives out of eight possible ones. Skiers climbed away from the others also this year with the highest average ascent per activity (867 m). Also the number two, mountaineering with 688 m on average, kept its spot. Trail running (380 m) defended its third spot even though the trail runners didn’t reach the 400-meter mark this year. To keep the playing field level, we were only comparing averages. A cumulative number of ascent meters per country or activity would not have made sense as the population and number of Suunto members varies from nation to nation. YOU DON’T NEED MOUNTAINS AT HOME TO ENJOY BIG ASCENTS The biggest surprise this year was the winner in ski touring category: the skiers from the Netherlands toured the biggest average ascents! It seems you don’t need mountains to enjoy big ascents. The highest point of their country rises only to 322 meters. However, it is hard to believe that the Dutch would have collected all that vert back at home. One explanation for their success is that they didn’t actually tour at home, but had mostly traveled on a holiday to bigger hills and had had time to really record some vert. The same must be partly true to Great Britain that took the second spot in the ski touring ranking. Countries like Switzerland, Austria, Italy and France had tens of times more ski touring activities during the week than the Dutch or the Brits but their averages were still lower. It seems that it is hard to beat someone enjoying a holiday even if you have mountains in your backyard. More dawn patrols and headlamp tours will be needed for the locals if they wish to beat their guests next year! This analysis is not meant to take anything away from the Dutch and the Brits. There seems to be an active ski touring community in both countries that know that you need to go out during the World Vertical Week! Good job! Ski touring (average 867 m) The Netherlands 1160 m Great Britain 1130 m Switzerland 996 m Spain 953 m Italy 951 m JAPANESE ON TOP IN MOUNTAINEERING Japanese mountaineers recorded the highest average ascents during the week-long event. They added about 150 meters to their last year’s average and went from fifth to first. Well done! Mountaineering (average 688 m) Japan 846 m Switzerland 799 m Italy 765 m Austria 746 m France 743 m ASIA DOMINATED TRAIL RUNNING DURING THE WORLD VERTICAL WEEK It has been clear every year that Asia is strong in trail running and the same trend continues also this time around: The crown for the most average trail running ascent goes to Japan! That’s a strong performance considering the Japanese were number one also in mountaineering. Top spots in mountaineering and trail running, activities with the second and the third biggest average ascents, is an excellent demonstration that the Japanese are really strong in the uphill. Winter in the mountainous regions in Europe and North America may limit the trail running ascents but never the less the Japanese and Chinese runners were very strong. Trail running (average 380 m) Japan 731 m China 653 m Portugal 547 m Italy 523 m Spain 508 m Mountain biking (average 323 m) Italy 482 m Spain 479 m South Africa 382 m New Zealand 378 m Brazil 377 m Trekking (average 315 m) Italy 436 m Austria 426 m France 357 m Spain 354 m USA 246 m Cycling (average 214 m) Spain 411 m Italy 363 m South Africa 328 m France 301 m Austria 264 m Cross-country skiing (average 199 m) The Czech Republic 374 m France 316 m Norway 259 m Austria 219 m Sweden 213 m Running (average 103 m) Slovenia 192 m Norway 151 m Switzerland 146 m Croatia 142 m Portugal 139 m READ ALSO: THREE INSPIRING STORIES FROM SUUNTO WORLD VERTICAL WEEK

The 2018 Suunto Summiteers are: Aniol, Spain Daniel, Switzerland / Spain Dmytro, Ukraine Julia, Finland Leonardo, Italy Maggie, UK Patrick, France Patrik, Slovakia Sherry, USA Tara, USA Teoh, Malaysia Valentin, Romania Verónica, Ecuador (All participants have been individually contacted by Suunto.) Welcome to #suuntosummit, everyone! ***** 5 February 2018 ***** Suunto Summit 2018 Do you want to be a part of a weekend full of trail running in the Finnish forest, workshops on Suunto products, and a little sauna too? If you can get to Helsinki for 4-6.5, we’ll do the rest!If this sounds like your kind of weekend, fill in the application below and tell us why you’re passionate about sports and Suunto, and share your story with #suuntosummit Applications are due by 22.2.2018. (Amer Sports employees are not eligible for this Suunto Summit) APPLY NOW Here's what the Summit looks like in action!   In 2017 we hosted an inspiring group of 16 Suunto fans from around the world for a weekend of sharing experiences – and some muddy Finnish trails.   Summit team gearing up for the start of the trail race   Serene moment for Sante in the forest   Ready for orienteering?   Summiteers celebrating at the finish of Bodom Trail   All images by Philipp Reiter