Conquering Mountains with "Camerarunner" Biel Ràfols and Insta360 Titan

Salomon may have been around for almost 80 years, but it was 2023 when the brand hit the mainstream with the XT-6. Designed to function as trail shoes with the comfort of sneakers, they were the must-have shoes, seen everywhere from the runways of Paris to the top of your Instagram feed—but it wasn't simply a trend in fashion, it was a trend of the time. The COVID pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns were a stark reminder of just how great the outdoors can be, and since the all-clear was given, there has been a boom in people going on adventures, great and small.

Among them is Biel Ràfols, a self-identified "camerarunner" who creates outdoor content for Salomon. While he's best known on social media for his raw and rugged orienteering videos, in which he uses Insta360 action cameras to get a runner's-eye view of the course, he recently embarked on a much bigger project that required a much bigger camera.

Salomon 360 Mountains is a collaboration with Google Street View that maps Europe's most famous peaks. This was primarily intended for hikers to either see the route up close before making their own climbs so they can plan ahead, or for them to relive the route afterward, but it's also found popularity with a broader audience who can't make the climb themselves and enjoy these videos as a form of "virtual ascent".

To capture the mountains in the most authentic way possible, Ràfols uses Insta360 Titan. This powerhouse of a camera was designed for cinematic VR and, loaded into his backpack, the eight lenses most recently recorded Torre de Cerredo, the highest peak of the Picos de Europa in Spain, in glorious ultra high-definition.

Ràfols is a lifelong hiker, his passion for the outdoors sparked by family holidays to the Pyrenees when he was a child, and he's been able to share this passion with the world thanks to Insta360 action cameras. For trail running, he prefers Insta360 X4. "[These] cameras have allowed us to get much closer to the trail and see moments of the race that we had never had the chance to see before," he said, "a POV makes it seem like you're in the middle of the race."

The slower pace and vaster horizons of mountain climbing, however, make Titan his camera of choice for Salomon 360 Horizons. "The quality of the eight lenses at 8K and the possibility of having the built-in GPS," Ràfols told us, "also the battery life is necessary to last several hours". These are aspects he considers clutch features when mapping a detailed and accurate route to a peak. Having used Titan to tackle the Picos de Europa, Ràfols' says his next mission could be Mulhacén, the highest peak on the Iberian Peninsula.

To see spectacular footage of the Pyrenees captured by Ràfols and others with Titan, check out the Salomon 360 Mountains page on the Salomon Spain website, and all the gear you need to make your own epic trail running, mountain climbing, out-and-about footage is available on the Insta360 Official Store.

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