I\u2019m not usually the type of person that likes to rely on devices for survival. The reason for that is simple, I\u2019m a fighter, a man of nature, and I know that I only have myself to count on when confronted to a dangerous situation. Having been in the field of solo exploration for over 20 years, I have come to learn to sail across oceans, climb to the summit of mountains, and survive in the most extreme conditions without ever relying on a device to bring me back home to my family.<\/p>\n
I first heard of the inReach when preparing for an expedition that would bring me by car from my home in Switzerland, across 13 countries, into Pakistan where I would then attempt to summit the mountain of my dreams: K2. The idea of remaining constantly connected via satellite for the rest of the world to follow my every footstep made me quite skeptical. I might be a modern day explorer, but when climbing a mountain, I tend to favour old school techniques (no oxygen, no ropes, no high altitude porters). The inReach however wouldn\u2019t assist\u00a0me to the top of a summit the way a rope or oxygen would, it would simply remain in arms reach if ever my climbing partners and I were to encounter a dangerous situation.<\/p>\n
By automatically sending out my position every 10 minutes, the inReach faithfully and accurately tracked my progress. Directly connected to my Facebook page, my family, friends and followers would know when I was moving forward, backwards or remaining in the same position. At the end of every day, I would then use my inReach to send out my daily update. (For example: \u201cClose to camp 3 at 6800m.\u201d) Every message was accompanied by a link that showed my live GPS position as well as my previous ones on a satellite map. If an emergency ever did occur, all I had to do is press on the inReach\u2019s SOS button and a long lasting and interactive signal would be sent out directly to a rescue team to come save me.<\/p>\n
Although we never made it to the summit of K2, the inReach allowed me to share my story in real time in ways that I have never done in my history of solo exploration. The inReach is a life insurance. It is the tool that increases my chances of making it back home to my family if ever I do encounter danger along my journeys. It is a revolutionised way for an adventurer, mountaineer, or sailor to stay in touch with loved ones anywhere and at anytime, a real must-have for any outdoor enthusiast to ensure that one\u2019s fears never overtake one\u2019s dreams.<\/p>\n
Mike Horn<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m not usually the type of person that likes to rely on devices for survival. The reason for that is simple, I\u2019m a fighter, a man of nature, and I know that I only have myself to count on when confronted to a dangerous situation. Having been in the field of solo exploration for over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[32,119,111,120,121,63,122,29,123],"class_list":["post-2912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-climbing","tag-device","tag-driventoexplore","tag-explore","tag-inreach","tag-k2","tag-lifesaving","tag-mountaineering","tag-rescueme"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mikehorn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mikehorn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mikehorn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikehorn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikehorn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikehorn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikehorn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mikehorn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikehorn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikehorn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}