To experience how beautiful our planet is, you have to dare to walk close to the edge of the ravine. Mike Horn does it every day. And with an important purpose
Text: Gerben Bijpost
Mike Horn (1966) accomplished his first major expedition in 1997. Starting on the west coast of Peru, he walked 600 kilometres eastwards and climbed the 5800-metre-high Mount Mismi, source of the Amazon river, in the Andes. There he opened his rucksack and pulled out a hydrospeed. A kind of surfboard, barely bigger than a hefty tray. Just roomy enough to lay your upper body on, just thick enough to provide some buoyancy. On this board he descended the first part of the river, only to swap it later for a small canoe. This is how he sailed for 7,000 churning kilometres. By himself, without any assistance. Along the way, hunting and fishing and looking for edible plants to survive. It took six months before he tasted salt water and reached the Atlantic Ocean. End point of this journey, but no more than a brief stop in an ongoing career full of unlikely achievements.
Death
This first expedition was a life-threatening adventure, but certainly not Horn's first confrontation with the relativity of existence. He grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, as the eldest son of two university lecturers.
"My father was a psychology teacher. He gave me the freedom to discover who I was. When he noticed that I was different from other children, I was given one rule: be home at six o'clock. Then I always told him what I had done. He didn't have to ask for that. I enjoyed telling him. About where I had cycled to, that I had tried to swim across a river, climb a tree, things like that. And sometimes he would go with me to teach me things, how to safely cross a river with rocks or something.
Besides being a teacher, my father was also a professional rugby player. At his farewell match, after a 20-year career, he scored the winning point. I was about 12 years old and SO proud. I told him I wanted to be like him. I remember his answer well, because it changed my life. He said: you can never be me, because you are who you are. My life is what it is, but I can already see that you are much greater. And in that moment I believed him. I believed that I could become bigger than him. And it encouraged me to get everything out of life that's in it."
"When I finished school, just 17 years old, I joined the South African Special Forces. Very few manage to qualify for it. I was one of them."
The youthful Horn underwent the toughest training possible, was schooled in guerrilla and psychological warfare tactics and spent two years in various war zones. In an interview, he once told of the day he stood in front of a firing squad, waiting for the deadly shots and was saved at the last moment by a policeman.
"At 18, I already knew that someone will do anything to stay alive. Then came the day my father said: I know you are a fine soldier, that you can handle anything. But please, come back. Don't go and fight anymore. We need you at home. You need to take care of the family. Because I only have a month to live.
My father died when he was 42. I was just 18."
Award ceremony
Mike Horn looks like you imagine an explorer. Average height, athletically built, smoothly moving, tanned and a weathered face. He speaks English with a Swiss accent, but also seems to be able to express himself in Spanish, French, Afrikaans, German, Russian and Dutch. Always handy when you count the whole world as your working territory.
Two years after his trek across the Amazon, he became the first man to circumnavigate the entire equator without using motorised transport. This Latitude Zero expedition, which lasted 17 months, earned him the Laureus World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year Award, a kind of Nobel Prize for athletes, in 2001. It was during this award ceremony that he met Johann Rupert, chairman and founder of the Richemont Group. The latter promptly took off his own watch, a Panerai, and gave it to Horn saying, "We will follow you as long as you live." Since then, Panerai has been one of his regular sponsors.
More than 20 years after his first expedition, Mike Horn has not lost his wanderlust. Tirelessly, he seeks adventure and extremes to push his limits.
"That's a property of extremes. When you look for it you always find the next challenge. For an explorer, it is a never-ending story. Until one day it stops."
In any way?
"Indeed, by any means necessary. Because of course, one day it stops. But if you are afraid of losing, you can never win. It's always about how far you can go to still stay just on the safe side."
Are you taking fewer risks as you get a day older?
"On the contrary. The advantage of getting older is that I have already done so much. I have survived things that have been fatal to others. That gives me the experience I can apply in dangerous situations. I do things now that I would never have done in my 'crazy years'. Because I wasn't ready for that then. From my 15e I have been dreaming of crossing Antarctica. But I waited until I was 51ste. Before that, I had to cross Greenland, go to the North Pole and walk around the Arctic Circle. As a kind of exercise."
What once started out of curiosity, perhaps even a thirst for thrills, has gradually turned into a conservation mission?
"Absolutely. With my expeditions, I create a platform that allows me to communicate with humanity. With effect. We have now launched more than 40 conservation projects, planted more than 6 million trees in the Amazon since 2008 and trained 200 ambassadors. I succeed mainly because I can use my expeditions as a conservation angle. I let people see how special the world is, because only then will they get motivated to save it."
No political ambitions?
"I have already been asked once and thanked for it. I don't believe that politics by itself can bring about big changes. Above all, people must want to change themselves. Consuming differently, living differently, making different choices, buying different things. Politics can ban plastic bags, but people can also choose not to buy them. That motivation has to come from within themselves. And to motivate, you have to be among the people. Address them directly. I have the advantage that my voice is heard. Anyone can climb K2 or cross the North Pole, but I did it. That makes me credible. It gives my message more weight, so I am more likely to get people moving."
Do you often think back to moments when things almost went wrong?
"Near misses don't exist for me. Things go right or wrong. Resulting in life or death. If I started worrying about predicaments, I would stay at home. Living is like walking on a tightrope. You decide how much risk you take. My father used to say: you have two choices in this life. You can walk along the edge of the ravine and fully enjoy the most amazing views. At the risk of falling. Or you can stay a long way from the edge. And you don't see a beat. But you probably live longer."
Happy with Panerai as a sponsor?
"Definitely. Because a watch is not only useful to know what time it is. In 2015, I was climbing K2 with a team. As professionals, we obviously hadn't chosen the easiest route, because those are for tourists. So we had to continuously punch pitons into the wall to secure our climbing ropes. At one point, mine ran out, while I still needed one. Then I took off my watch, pushed this into a rock crevice, twisted it so it got stuck and here I pulled my line along behind it. Then I hung on to it with my 82 kilograms and continued descending. This watch is still in that cliff, somewhere on K2. This is the only Panerai I have never returned. I told them where it is and if they want it they can go and retrieve it themselves, haha."
Panerai Submersible Mike Horn Edition 47 mm. Price €19,900
More info can be found HERE
Bio Mike Horn
Mike Horn has two daughters, Annika and Jessica. His wife Cathy died of breast cancer in 2015.
He studied Movement Science (Human Movement Science) at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
He is the former holder of the world record for riverboarding (hydrospeed) from a waterfall (22 metres high), was the first man in the world (together with Borge Ousland) to walk to the North Pole during the Arctic winter, climbed several of the world's highest mountains (8000+ metres) without the use of oxygen cylinders, circumnavigated the entire Arctic Circle solo without the use of motorised transport (boat, kayak, ski-kite and on foot), circumnavigated the entire equator solo without the use of motorised transport (sailing and on foot) and completed the longest solo crossing of Antarctica, without any assistance en route, 5100 kilometres, 57 days, using kites and skis. And the list is even longer. Therefore, check www.mikehorn.com
Hobby (according to his own website): preserving our planet
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