MIKE HORN, EXPLORER
"The impossible exists only until we find a way to make it possible", Mike Horn
It all began when Mike moved to Switzerland and took an instructor’s job at an extreme outdoors company. And this environment proved perfect for the bravery bug to bite quickly… so Mike decided to descend the Mont Blanc glacier to the French Riviera - but using a hydrospeed (a human powered floating device). This was a first – and no mean feat.
From that day on, Mike knew he had found his passion – and his life would change forever.
Jungle Fever
Mike’s hunger for a really big challenge was now increasing. And in 1997, the Amazon Expedition was born. Without any form of motorised transport, Mike would traverse the South American continent – and completely alone.
Starting at the source of the world’s mightiest river – the Amazon, he navigated its entire length using a hydrospeed, hunting for food to survive and resting along the dangerous riverbanks at night.
Six months later, Mike swam into the salty Atlantic Ocean, mission accomplished.
Middle Earth Conquered
In 1999 under the banner Latitude Zero, Mike set out to circumnavigate the globe around the equator. Once again, he would be totally alone and without motorised transport.
He began by traversing the Atlantic Ocean from Africa’s west coast to Brazil on a 28 foot Trimaran. Then by foot, bicycle and canoe, he negotiated the ominous Amazon jungle and the daunting high altitude of the Andes, to Ecuador. Crossing the Pacific Ocean to Indonesia was next, and on through Borneo and Sumatra through dense jungles. Back on his Trimaran, it was then time to cross the Indian Ocean.
The last leg of Latitude Zero was just as challenging and saw Mike cross the entire African continent on foot, through the dangerous drug zones of the Congo, and through to Gabon. After eighteen gruelling months, Mike arrived back at his original starting point and his circle of life in the Latitude Zero Expedition was now complete.
This remarkable feat made Mike a worldwide personality and won him the 2001 Laureus World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year Award and an invitation for an audience with Pope Jean-Paul II at the Vatican in Rome.
Cold Sweat
A solo circumnavigation of the Arctic Circle by boat, kayak, ski kite and on foot lasting over two years was the blueprint for the icy Arktos Expedition in 2002. And another mind-blowing display of human endurance began.
It made Mike the first human being to travel the Arctic Circle without motorized transport. He completed a staggering 20 000km journey through Greenland, Canada, Alaska, the Bering Strait and Russia's Siberia – all while pulling a kevlar sledge laden with 180kg of equipment and food.
Unsurprisingly, Arktos earned Mike a nomination for the ‘2005 Laureus World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year Award’.
Another Cold Fact
In 2006, Mike and Norwegian explorer Borge Ousland, became the first men to travel unaided by dogs or motorized transport from Cape Artichesky in Russia to the North Pole during the permanent darkness of the Arctic months. An arduous journey lasting 60 days of skiing, pulling sleds and having to frequently swim in parts of the freezing Arctic Ocean.
New Heights
The year 2007 saw Mike’s dream of conquering an exciting new level of challenge materialise. As an aspirant mountaineer, he was invited by three renowned Swiss climbers to join their Himalaya Expedition in Pakistan. After two months Mike reached the summit of two peaks higher than 8 000m – and without the use of any additional oxygen.
A Family Affair
Mike’s passion for the planet is matched only by his passion for his family – and he has shared and enjoyed two memorable expeditions with his loved ones. The first in 2005 saw them cross Bylot Island on skis and the second was by ski from Barneo base to the North Pole.
Most remarkably, Mike’s two teenage daughters, Annika and Jessica are now the youngest ever to ski to the North Pole in temperatures of around -35°C.
Young at Heart
Mike was elected a member of the exclusive Laureus World Sports Academy in 2007 in recognition of his ground-breaking achievements.
He is undoubtedly one-of-a-kind. And his unrivalled years of hands-on experience with oceans, rivers and mountains, swamplands, tundra and ice or jungles and deserts, makes him the greatest modern day explorer ever. Yet Mike is still young at heart in every way and has begun a brand new chapter in his life.
One he describes as possibly his most exciting to date. That is to share and impart his knowledge to our younger generation, helping to educate and inform them about the beauty and significance of what is now ‘their’ planet and to help preserve its magnificence for their generations to come.
Mike Horn
