Suunto Blog

The typical human eye can see two to three million colors and an open human mind can appreciate an equally diverse array of people, lifestyles, identities and sexual orientations. For Suunto athlete and American trail runner Ryan Montgomery it’s this diversity that makes the world such a beautiful place. The 27-year-old recently returned to the US after travelling to Chamonix, France where he ran the 55 km OCC (Orsières-Champex-Chamonix) ultra run. Wherever he competes, Ryan champions diversity any way he can, even if it’s simply by approaching runners that appear new or alone and striking up conversation to make them feel welcome. He consults with organisations and brands on how to build welcoming and diverse communities. After all, he knows first hand how difficult it is to feel comfortable in your own skin in a hostile environment. Ryan celebrates setting a FKT record on the 150 km Wonderland Trail back in October, 2020. (Photo by Nick Danielson) Finding freedom on the trail Ryan grew up in Alaska and Seattle and struggled to find his place in a decidedly conservative milieu. He realised he was queer in grade school, and hid it from friends and family for fear of what their reaction might be. “My whole environment was quite homophobic,” Ryan says. “So coming out was quite the journey.” Ryan ran cross-country at high school and even then gravitated towards long distance running. At age 14 he told his running coach he wanted to run a marathon and she told him he couldn’t do it and would only hurt himself if he tried. “Growing up as a gay boy and having so much of my identity not being seen or validated, it just felt like another nail in the coffin,” Ryan says. “So I took it as a personal challenge and was like ‘let me show you coach’! I did it and it was a great experience. Running allowed me to find a headspace where I could explore and express myself.” One year later and inspired by the challenge of endurance running, Ryan applied to go on an expedition with not-for-profit Impossible2possible, which empowers youth to go beyond their perceived limitations. He was accepted and went on an expedition to the Bolivian mountains where, with a group of other youth, he ran a marathon every day for five days. “It was such an eye opening experience where I learned not only so much about my body, but my vision for what I wanted to accomplish in my running career,” Ryan says. “And it was when I first knew I wanted to run ultra marathons.” Going ultra distance In 2017, Ryan ran his first 100-mile race, the Wasatch Front 100, and finished in 27 hours. Inspired by the distance, he concentrated on improving his speed and two years later he broke the 13-hour mark for the 100-mile distance at the 2019 USATF (USA Track and Field) National Championships. Since then, he has achieved a lot, including placing first at the 2019 Quicksilver 100k, coming second at the 2019 Tahoe 200-mile Endurance Run, and, in 2020 setting an FKT (fastest known time) record on the 150 km Wonderland Trail in Mt Rainier National Park, to name a few. He loves the trail and ultra running scene, and overall has felt welcome as part of it, but says the sport has work to do to become an inclusive and friendly place for people from all walks of life. “There’s a lot of people that have been so welcoming and, surprisingly, the trail community is more queer, and gay, than we give it credit for,” Ryan says. “And that’s the problem, those are not stories that are being told. The downside is there’s still so much homophobia.” Being a champion of change Ryan works with organisations and brands in the outdoor sector to help them better understand and promote diversity. He says it comes down to more richly reflecting their various communities and telling stories that are too often neglected or ignored. For too long, the outdoor sports industry - due to its European and North American power base - has focused on marketing that features and promotes straight white people and athletes to the exclusion of everyone else. But, Ryan says, change is in the air in the US and across the world. More and more people, organisations and brands, even entire industries, are waking up to the fact they have neglected groups in their communities, particularly people of colour and LGBTQ people, and it’s time to tell their stories and to advocate for an inclusive society. “We need to celebrate all the different people in our communities and be very, very cognizant of how we're doing that in our engagement and also our marketing,” Ryan says. “We need to find explicit and concrete ways to show up and support and welcome people.” Images by Nick Danielson

In this third film of our Peak Creator series we profile landscape architect Ryley Thiessen who shares how he designs mountain resorts that bring people closer to nature. The Peak Creator film series celebrates creative people inspired by the great outdoors. We talk to four creators and find out how nature inspires them. Ryley specializes in designing four season resorts around the world. He grew up in the countryside and from an early age knew he wanted to work with the earth. The essential principle for this work is balance: “It’s working with nature and finding that balance where you’re not taking too much,” he says. Click play below and watch Ryley share how he approaches his work.

Originally a graphic designer, once Angela Percival got a taste of outdoor adventure photography there was no going back - she decided to focus on creation. This is the second in our Peak Creator film series, which celebrates creative people inspired by the great outdoors. We talk to four creators and find out what inspires their creative work. Now Arc’teryx’s senior outdoor photographer, she had to work hard to break into a profession dominated by men and now her work speaks for itself. “What inspires me creatively is just being outside, period,” Angela says. “Being in the mountains, yes, being in the alpine even more, but I just need to be outside.” Click play below and watch Angela share her creative inspiration.

Since forever, the great outdoors and its misty forests, silhouetted mountain ranges, and craggy peaks have inspired creatives of all ilk, whether poet, painter, musician or photographer. The awe nature strikes in us gets the creative energy flowing. The resulting work has, in some cases, inspired the masses and shapes how we see and protect the natural world. At Suunto we believe this is worth celebrating. So we initiated our Peak Creator film series, in which we met four creators - a trail builder, a photographer, an architect and an artist - and found out how the natural world inspires what they do. We’ll publish a short film about each of them in the coming weeks.   Meet photographer Angela Percival, architect Ryley Thiessen, artist Jessa Gilbert and trailbuilder Dan Raymond in the Peak Creator Series.   The first film up, the trailbuilder sees his work more as uncovering what’s already there; next up, the photographer admits she’d rather be out shooting than indoors editing; then the architect explains how his mountain resorts bring people closer to nature; finally, we meet the artist who packs her painting kit and heads out for epic free rides. Stay tuned for each film as it drops. And get your own creative juices flowing! Watch Peak Creator Series episode 1 – The Trailbuilder Watch Peak Creator Series episode 2 – The Photographer Watch Peak Creator Series episode 3 – The Architect Watch Peak Creator Series episode 4 – The Artist

At the end of September, a group of athletes in Spain came together and as a Suunto team ran the Red Bull Buen Camino in northern Spain. Meaning “good way” in English, buen camino is the traditional way locals greet pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago. Red Bull Buen Camino relay run follows the original path of the Camino de Santiago - the 314 km Camino Primitivo, which has the reputation as the toughest of all the El Camino routes because it starts in Oviedo, the capital of Asturias, and passes through mountainous country before reaching Santiago de Compostela. Press play to see the Suunto team’s epic Camino run The race consisted of 33 teams of roughly six people and included elite athletes. Over the 314 km, the teams gained more than 8565 vertical meters, and reached Santiago in three days. All the members of the Suunto relay team live in Girona, Spain and came together to complete the challenge. “The must to be part of the team was that none of them had been to Santiago’s cathedral before,” says Nuria Carrera, in Suunto’s Spanish marketing team. “Most of them knew each other but not the whole group so we organised a meeting a few weeks before the run to create the team spirit that we had. “Overall our team was extremely happy to be part of this adventure, some of them weren’t in this kind of challenge in a long time because of COVID,” Nurria continues. “Each member pushed themselves to their maximum and gave it their all.” The team was a mix of local athletes and expats: Emma Snowsill: A former Australian triathlete. She won the gold medal in triathlon at the 2008 Olympics. Christian Meier: A former Canadian racing cyclist who rode professionally between 2005 and 2016. Tom Austen: business man; founder of Pelotan. Cyclist but recently discovered the trail running world. Deena Blacking: lives between Girona and London and has a strong passion for outdoor sports and adventure. Aleix Ferrer: the youngest in the team. Entrepreneur and sports lover, he started with orienteering and is now focused on cycling and running. Adrià Canimas: a fireman with a strong passion for the outdoors and the mountains. Images: Roger Salanova

It’s been a year since a group of German, Austrian and Italian athletes completed a relay run along what was the frontline between Italy and Austria during the First World War. They did the AlpFrontTrail run to explore their own history and to remind the public what can happen when divisions fester and walls go up. As they ran the 850 km frontline, they visited former military forts and met local guides who explained the events of that dark time. Each athlete was personally touched, and went home with a newfound appreciation for the importance of remembering history. Watch the just released film about AlpFrontTrail “There are stories from that time that we find unimaginable today,” says Harald Wisthaler, a professional photographer who captured the journey. “There’s no one who’s still alive who lived at that time. But we met a lot of older people who said their family was in the war.” Harald combined his photography, bits of history and personal experiences from the project to create the AlpFrontTrail exhibition, which travelled through six towns in the Alps over summer. It’s not too late to see the exhibition, which is now being exhibited in Monte Elmo, Italy, next to the largest sundial in the world. The exhibition has been well received as it has travelled through the Alps, reminding many younger people about the war in the mountains that happened 101 years before. “Many people realised, especially after everything that happened with COVID, that borders are still here, and they can be closed. Now, the border is just a line on a map. But 101 years ago it was much more.” All images by Harald Wisthaler