As always, Vertical Week inspired the Suunto community and resulted in some incredible performances — and photography!
We scoured through all the shots on Instagram tagged with #verticalweek and found it hard to choose our three winners for this year’s photo competition. Thanks to everyone who participated.
Here are the winners!
Following his Suunto 9 Baro in the Tatras
Motion designer, photographer and passionate Polish hiker Lukasz Pabian shared this shot he captured while hiking to Czerwone Wierchy, the Red Peaks, in Poland’s Tatra mountains. He’d been sitting at his desk most of Vertical Week, waiting for his chance to get out into the mountains. When it finally came, it started out a beautiful day: clear, sunny and windless. But weather in the mountains is notoriously fickle.
“When a strong wind arrived, everything started to pick up speed, I had to speed up,” Lukasz says. “The clouds covered the other peaks more and more and the sun was already setting behind the peaks - it was getting dark, the visibility in the clouds was less than five meters. Everything around me was white, the ground was white from snow, the air was white from fog. Never before had I needed my Suunto 9 Baro as much as I needed it then. I had the route saved in my watch that I was supposed to follow. The visibility dropped to a few meters and I was still up on the ridge by the time evening came. There is rarely internet access in the mountains so I couldn’t use a map app, but thanks to my Suunto I was able to get back to the valley and eventually home safely. It was an amazing experience, a great hike, and I took some cool photos, stepped out of my comfort zone and had an unexpectedly challenging time.”
This is what World Vertical Week is all about!
Ski touring above Davos
Swiss mountaineer, beginner paraglider and Alps explorer Florian Cotting shared a shot he got on a five-day ski-touring trip from Bergün to Davos. The lack of snow in the Alps this winter forced him, his girlfriend and a few friends to embark on a spontaneous, mostly unplanned trip.
“We were alone up there with an average of 1500 m of ascent a day,” Flo says. “The photo I chose was the second to last day of our journey and it was just after we put the skins back on for the second time that I took it! We went back down on the other side of the pass and my girlfriend asked: ‘let’s go back up for a third time?’” .
That’s the spirit!
Lighting an ice curtain above Salzburg
Austrian mountain lover, trail runner and ski tourer Anna Wacha lives near Salzburg, Austria and is blessed with endless mountains to explore with her husband, family and Chilli, her friendly dog.
“The picture was taken on a skitour with my husband, my mom and a good friend,” Anna says. “The mountain we were going to is called Hocheiser (3206 m). The tour starts at Enzingerboden and, after a short walk, you have to pass a tunnel and at the end of this tunnel is a big curtain of ice. In my shot you can see our headlamps lightning up the ice.”
Lead image: © Philipp Reiter
