SUUNTOブログ

In the second episode of #SuuntoAdventure Video Series you will meet Canadian ski mountaineer Greg Hill. As one of the world’s leading ski mountaineers, Greg has pioneered first descents, summited over 190 mountains and climbed and skied millions of meters. Along the way he has broken records, like skied two million vertical feet in a calendar year and 100.000 meters in a month. Read Greg's profile here.    Next episode of #SuuntoAdventure Video Series will be out in two weeks. Stay tuned!Watch also: Face to Face with Emelie Forsberg – #SuuntoAdventure Video Series, Episode 1 Face to Face with Kilian Jornet – #SuuntoAdventure Video Series, Episode 3 Face to Face with William Trubridge – #SuuntoAdventure Video Series, Episode 4 Face to Face with Conrad Stoltz – #SuuntoAdventure Video Series, Episode 5

As the skimo season comes to a close, Kilian Jornet is hanging up his skis and turning his attention to the big adventures ahead for the 2015 summer season. Quite literally, one stands out above all the rest: Everest. As part of his Summits of My Life project, which has seen him set speed records on seven mountains around world, Everest will be the project’s tallest order yet.Jornet is heading to Everest for his first time during the Himalayan climbing season, this spring, to begin what he says will be a long, patient process of preparation and discovery.“I conceive of this trip to Everest as a chance to learn,” Jornet says. “To really get to know the mountain and its surroundings and to learn everything my colleagues can teach me. And which photographer took this shot? Kilian himself! “I don’t know when we will be able to attempt the challenge as that will depend very much on the weather, acclimatization and the conditions we find there. I’m taking this first trip as an opportunity to learn.”His first visit to the highest mountain in the world will be focused on becoming familiar with the area, the planned route and, crucially, the effects of altitude. Everest will be Jornet’s first 8,000m mountain. Completing a rapid ascent on his first expedition is not something he says is on the cards. “We know we have a long way ahead of us,” he says. “I think this will be a long-term project that we hope to complete in the coming years.” Depending on weather conditions, Jornet will attempt the ascent either via Norton Pass or Hornbein Couloir – both rarely climbed routes. After he’s returned from the roof of the world, Jornet's plan is to hit the trail running scene in Europe and the US. He is not joining any fixed competitive circuit, but will run the races that most inspire him.His first race of the season will be the Mount Marathon in Alaska, one of the oldest in the world. It’s a vertical race to the top of the race’s namesake, Mount Marathon (922m), on US Independence Day. Next, he’s running in the Hardrock (USA), followed by the Tromsö Skyrace (Norway), the Sierre Zinal (Switzerland), the Skaala Uphill (Norway) and then finally, back on his home turf, the Ultra Pirineu in the Pyrenees. Main image shows Kilian on Denali. ©Summits of my Life

Figuring out where you are is fairly simple when you have a map, the visibility is good and you can identify a few landmarks. But when the going gets rough, the weather is against you and the sun sets, the task isn’t so simple any more. In this tutorial you will learn how your Ambit can help you to find your location.   The basics are simple: you can find your current position with a few clicks of the Ambit. Choose: Navigation – Location – Current To make sure you get the satellite fix as quickly as possible, remember to sync your Ambit regularly and keep it up to date. Once you have found the GPS signal you will get your current location in geographic coordinates. The most common coordinate system in GPS devices is WGS84, which is also used by default in Suunto GPS watches.   Use the same coordinate system on your watch and map If you need to give your exact location to someone in a rescue situation, WGS84 works. But when you start using a map and defining your location on it, you will need to make sure your GPS watch and the map use the same coordinate system. (To change your Ambit’s coordinate system go to General – Formats – Position format.) Latitude/longitude is the coordinate system used in marine navigation and is common on topographical outdoor maps. Latitude lines run horizontally. The zero latitude is the Equator. Longitudes run vertically and the zero longitude runs through Greenwich, England. The latitude is normally the first number expressed in lat/long coordinate (for example 60°16'19" N 24°58’23’’ E). WGS84, which uses latitudes/longitudes, is actually more than a coordinate system: it also includes a model of the globe that enables the use of GPS altimeters. UTM is a grid coordinate system that is used on many outdoor maps. It divides the map into a perpendicular grid in which each of the squares are the same size anywhere on the map. This means the coordinate system is tied directly to a distance in meters. This Norwegian map has both WGS84 (black) and UTM (blue) coordinates. The black numbers on the sides of the map are degrees latitude; the numbers on the top and bottom of the map are degrees longitude. To determine your location on the map, draw a west to east line through the corresponding latitude and a south to north line through the corresponding longitude. The intersection of the two lines indicates your position. The blue numbers are the northings and eastings of the UTM coordinate system. You can use them like the lat/log when finding your location on the map.   You can get support for your Suunto product at support

For ice-climber and Suunto ambassador, Matthias Scherer, winter is naturally a busy time. Recently, Matthias made a trip to Norway, where over the past few years, he’s gone in search of the ultimate ice lines. And this time, tucked away in the Fjords of the West Coast, he found just what he was looking for. Approaching Fjåene Fossen © Matthias Scherer“Ice climbing, like alpinism is always a quest. A quest for the ultimate ice line,” says the German climber.It’s that quest which lead Matthias back to Norway – a place where he had tried twice in vain to scale the lines buried deep within in the Fjords near Bergen. He was forced to retreat on both occasions due to bad conditions.“This time we checked the temperatures via the internet and decided to give it a go during the beginning of February. We knew that we had to be prepared both mentally and physically to face this big adventure.” A little clip of Matthias climbing in his home ground of Cogne, Italy in January. Arriving in Norway, his ‘adventure’ started almost immediately when a snowstorm blocked all the roads on his way in. And when the expedition finally commenced, Matthias and his crew were faced with crossing a waist-deep river of freezing water before reaching their line.“The climb up ‘Fjåene Fossen’ proved to be, as expected, an epic battle: bad ice quality and lots of water and snow pouring down on us. After several hours we reached the top of the line in a raging storm,” he says. But for Matthias, achieving one objective only leads to the next, on the way down they discovered another awesome-looking line.“Two days later in an even heavier storm, we reached the top of that line. We named it 'Stormbringer'.” On Pattinaggio © Matthias SchererYou’d think that after his Norwegian excursion, Matthias would kick back for a few days. Wrong. The climber has been busy climbing lines on his home turf of Cogne, Italy, as well as another trip back to Norway to climb in Rjukan. He's already looking forward to going back next year. “And next winter, I’ll be back on Norwegian ice once again.”

Have you ever thought of BASE jumping? With a wingsuit? In full winter conditions? In the dark? With two burning torches? Neither have we. But Patrick Kerber and his friends did – and the result, a photo by Christian Meier, looks amazing. © Christian Meier / www.chrigel.li “My friend Simon Wandeler and I have wanted to do a wingsuit BASE flight at night during winter for a very long time. But somehow we never really managed to do it,” the Swiss wingsuit flyer says. The idea picked up momentum after Kerber’s friend, photographer Fabian Wyss approached him with an idea of attaching some kind of light to the jumper. “When he told me his idea, I instantly understood what he wanted to do and could envision how this picture could turn out.” FLYING WITH A TORCH The first problem they faced was how to attach a light to the jumper that would be bright enough to be seen from a distance of about two kilometers. And of course it is not easy to attach a light to a wingsuit without changing the flying characteristics of the suit. “Then I had the idea of attaching flares to myself, exactly like the ones used for rescue missions or emergencies. But flares burn very, very hot and my biggest fear was burning holes or melting the suit. That would have been super dangerous.” Another challenge was finding a proper location that could be accessed in winter conditions at night and also photographed. After some research and tests they chose one of Kerber’s regular jumping spots, the east face of Titlis in Engelberg in Switzerland. The two photographers, Fabian Wyss and Christian Meier, stood on the other side of the valley on the Fürrenalp. “There definitely was a lot of pressure – even though we did intense testing before, I did not know for sure how it would turn out. Having fire really close to you on a wingsuit BASE flight leaves no margin for error. Everything has to work out.” EVERY SECOND COUNTS The big challenge for the image was timing. One single torch would burn for exactly one minute. “I definitely did not want to open up my parachute with fire still around me, as this could be very dangerous. I only have one single parachute attached to me. If this one burns or melts, it's over!” Kerber decided to use two torches. The first one he ignited before he took off and held in his right hand so it would be visible to the photographer. When the torch burned out, he quickly opened up his parachute and ignited a second torch attached to his foot. (That’s the break in the red line in the image.) “I only had 20 seconds to ignite the second one as it also burned for one minute and I only had 1 minute and 15 seconds to the landing area. I did not want to land with a flare still on fire, as this could be very dangerous for my gear and for myself. Even though there was snow where I landed, those torches burn so hot that they even burn underwater!” Patrick Kerber has jumped at night before, but not in winter and only at full moon. “The feeling was very intense and amazing. It is much harder to orientate yourself, as you can't see as well. It feels much more intense because you fly with more feeling and awareness of your body and movements.” For Kerber wingsuit flying is about freedom. “For me freedom is a moment of pure perfection and pure happiness, a moment where all that matters is now.” Watch a behind the scenes video of Patrick Kerber’s flight.

Do you have a favorite Ambit feature that you wish you could access quicker? No worries, in time mode you can access any menu item with a single push of a button after you have taught your Ambit2 or Ambit3 what you wish the shortcut button will do. The shortcut button comes in handy in many ways. For example, it is a quick way to set the wake-up alarm and travellers can use the shortcut to easily set the dual time to match the destination’s time zone. And for your most frequent activity the shortcut button can lead straight to the right sport mode setting you ready to go with a single push of a button. Here's how to use your Ambit's shortcut. DEFINE A SHORTCUT By default, when you keep [View] pressed in TIME mode, you toggle the display between light and dark. This shortcut can be changed to a different menu item. To define a shortcut: 1. Keep [Next] pressed to enter the options menu or press [Start Stop] to enter the start menu.2. Browse to the menu item to which you want to create a shortcut. 3. Keep [View] pressed to create the shortcut. Your own shortcut works when the watch is in time mode. In other modes, keeping [View] pressed accesses predefined shortcuts. For example, when the compass is active, you can access the compass settings by keeping [View] pressed. NOTE: Shortcuts cannot be created to all possible menu items, such as individual logs. You can get support for your Suunto product at support