Art of adventure
By: Bridget Brennan
| October-9-2009
Charismatic Mike Horn’s a veteran of many extreme feats – he is now channelling his energy to inspire the next generation of explorers.
The first thing you notice when you meet famed adventurer Mike Horn is his energy; boundless, lively and infectious. When AG Outdoor met Mike, 43, he was standing barefoot on his custom-built yacht, Pangaea, entertaining a 20-strong crowd in the Sydney sunshine and extolling the virtues of his latest endeavour – a mentoring program for young people interested in outdoor adventure and conservation.
Born in South Africa and now living in Switzerland, Mike has a jaw-dropping adventure CV that spans nearly 20 years. His many achievements include breaking the world record for the longest descent of a waterfall with a hydrospeed (essentially a polyurethane board specially designed for buoyancy, also known as a river board, with flippers on the rider’s feet for propulsion through rapids) on the Pacuare River in Costa Rica; completing a six-month solo traverse of South America and spending 18 months circumnavigating the world along the equator – without using any form of motorised transport.
But arguably the most impressive of his adventure achievements are those he’s undertaken on ice. In 2004 he became the first person to complete, non-stop and alone, the 20,000 km route around the Arctic Circle. It took him more than two years. Mike then teamed up with Norwegian explorer Børge Ousland in 2006 to reach the North Pole on foot – walking 10–12 hours a day in the pitch-black Arctic winter, each pulling 160 kg of equipment for 60 days. Now he’s sailing the high seas on Pangaea, leading a four-year expedition that gives groups of young people from across the globe an opportunity to join active missions to places such as Antarctica, India, and Aotorea/New Zealand to learn more about the environments they visit.
Your program has already given dozens of young people access to remote locations and expert adventure tutorage – how has it been going?Amazing, really amazing. There’re a lot of incredible kids out there. Now we’d like to give these kids the opportunity to speak out – that’s an important part of what we do – to give them a voice as well. I get a lot of feedback from these kids, a great deal in return, and that’s what makes it worthwhile.
What do you tell the young explorers who have joined you on Pangaea and are now interested in forging a path in adventuring?Never lose hope. It’s a rocky path – and it’s not paved in gold. If you really want to do it, you have to believe in yourself and keep going. It sounds very cliché but it depends on whether you really want to do it or not. The obstacles can be overcome if you better yourself and work hard toward your adventure.
Many of your personal adventures have been world firsts in extreme and dangerous conditions. What are the most important components of preparation for expeditions that have never been undertaken?It’s 80 per cent mental. If you know you can count on your equipment, your knowledge and you have the experience then that gives you a mental advantage. Plus, if you’re physically strong, that helps you mentally as well. Basically, if you’re only physically strong it’s not enough to succeed. In all aspects of life I think – not only in adventure.
What does fear mean to you? Has it played a significant role in your adventures?I see myself as someone who gets afraid often – but fear keeps me alive. Meaning that if I become afraid of something, it warns me that I don’t know enough about it. Fear is the release valve before dying that you have to listen to. It sounds easy to say, but we all take big steps in our lives – some people naturally take more of those big steps – and if you have the guts to confront fear, you step out a more experienced person on the other side.
What was the most difficult aspect of your expedition to the North Pole?There are two things we generally don’t like as humans: cold and dark. And often, being wet. In the Arctic you’re wet as you’re walking on ice floating on the ocean – there’s so much water. There’s no land beneath your feet and it’s cold and dark… you’re never comfortable.
Do you anticipate the course of your journeys before you set off – the obstacles you might encounter or the problems?I’ve never asked myself “What’s going to happen?” I just want to know what I’m going to get out of it – what return there will be for me emotionally and what I am going to learn.
In 2007 you took your two teenage daughters and your wife on an expedition to the North Pole. What were people’s reactions to that trip?It’s quite funny that [my family] don’t see what I do as dangerous at all. They’re so used to it. Sometimes it’s very difficult to explain to people that I take my own kids into those places because they don’t have that same knowledge and experience. They judge me, and say: “How can a father take his kids to the North Pole?” But that’s the environment I know. Sometimes people forget that. I think it’s completely normal, there’s no big deal. At the end of the day, all of us have very special lives but because [mine is] out of the norm and out of the ordinary, I think that’s why people seem to see it as strange.
Do you hope that exploring will form a part of these kids’ lives for a long time to come?It’s important to go out and explore – but to explore any field of the world. I just do it physically – really basically – just walking to the North Pole. Find something that you really like doing and once you find what you want to do, you’ll want to keep doing it as long as possible. I’ve been very fortunate and I see myself as privileged to have been able to do exactly what I want to do.
To follow the route of the Pangaea visit Mike Horn's website.