Explorer Mike Horn has solo-expeditioned in some of the harshest climates in the world, defying death and staring down obstacles like anacondas in the Amazon, polar bears in the Arctic and freezing ocean temperatures when the ice he was standing on broke. Despite losing his fingertips and toes to frostbite, he continues to explore. He tells Elite Traveler’s Roberta Naas what drives him.
Mike Horn is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished explorers of our era, renowned for his extraordinary ability to thrive in brutal conditions. Over three decades, Horn has pushed the boundaries of human potential through feats of endurance, courage and sheer inner determination: He took on a solo circumnavigation of the globe along the equator without the assistance of motorized equipment; he also circumnavigated the Arctic Circle (a 12,000-mile, two-year journey) in the same manner, trekked to the North Pole in complete darkness during winter, and was part of the first team to cross both the South and North Poles.
His 1997 Amazon River journey remains a standout in his storied career. After training with Brazilian special forces, he solo-hiked from the Pacific Ocean to the Amazon’s source in the Peruvian Andes, then navigated nearly 4,400 miles of river on a hydrospeed board — living off the environment while confronting anacondas and piranhas, plus breaking a bone, over the course of six months.
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These extreme adventures — along with high-altitude endurance after summiting four of the highest mountains in the world and doing two years’ compulsory military service — underscore not only Horn’s physical stamina but also his extraordinary mental strength: “I understood at 17 or 18, when I was sent to war, that physical strength is limited but the power of the mind can outlast it. If you are afraid, you can never engage 100%. It is a button you have to turn on in your mind. I understood that my willingness and determination to survive must be bigger than the fear.”
Horn, a Panerai brand ambassador and a man who likes to draw analogies to help people understand the thinking behind these incredible feats, says he was inspired as a child by several factors — not the least of which was his active father, who was a rugby star and who believed in pushing limits. He also says his philosophy is inspired by Maslow’s pyramid (a theory that organizes human needs into five levels), which he uses to explain the prioritization of needs.
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“When you live at home, what is important is your family, your comfort. But as you move up the pyramid, your needs change. When you go to war, your things, your car, your house — they are not as important as survival,” he says. “When you live on the top of the pyramid, where all that matters is survival, nothing else comes into play, and that is where you live your life to its fullest.”
Horn’s expeditions have often pushed him to the edge. He has been bitten by snakes, lost fingertips to frostbite, and narrowly escaped death more than once. He recounts his experience of falling into the polar ocean when he was crossing the ice.
“First you think about finding a way out; then, when you are out, you have only minutes to get dry, get warm — or die. The entire process from falling in until death is only about 14 minutes and, while that seems like a long time, it isn’t. Your mind has to process and force your body to move quickly. So, survival is more of a trade. It is something life teaches you when you go through these experiences again and again.”
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Horn adds that luck definitely plays a role: “In circumstances that are not under our control, we need a little bit of luck, as well. Luck is something that allows explorers to live a little bit longer.”
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However, he admits that luck is just a tiny part of it. “If you’re not serious in the extreme sport of being an explorer, you’re not losing a match, you’re losing a life. We can play life only once. So, the way we prepare ourselves, the way we make decisions and basically surround ourselves with the best people that possibly can help you to survive, is key.”
This mindset means embracing risks. “I’d rather live one day as a lion than a lifetime as a sheep. If you think of a cliff, you think about how far from the cliff face you’re going to walk. Some will walk 10 or 15 ft from the cliff, but I’m going to walk on the cliff face, and if I make a mistake, I fall. The only difference between life away from the cliff or on the cliff is the view. I like to see the full view; I don’t want to see the same thing every day of my life, and if that means I see more in a shorter time, that’s the way I choose to live.”
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From early in his career, Horn has partnered with Panerai, a Richemont Group brand renowned for its high-performance watches. On each expedition, he relies on a single watch designed to meet his extreme needs. He recalls knowing he was going to walk and ski the North Pole in almost complete darkness, so the brand worked to create a luminous watch. It also worked with him to develop materials that rendered the watches antimagnetic and corrosion-resistant.
“They made watches for me that would not freeze. They developed oils that wouldn’t freeze, watches that would become navigational instruments on my journeys. I only take one watch with me, and it needs to be able to do what I need. You need partners like that, those dedicated to innovation and precision, to be able to carry you through.”
As part of this partnership, Panerai released the Submersible GMT Titanio Mike Horn Experience Edition watch, PAM01670, which comes with the chance to join Horn on an expedition to Bhutan. Other versions are for sale without the experience, but for explorers, the 30-piece limited edition 47mm titanium watch with Carbotech bezel and patented polarized date display unlocks adventurous new doors.
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According to Horn, living outside more than he has lived inside over the past 30 years has also given him keen insight into the environment and transformed him into an environmental advocate. “In five years, I spent just 32 days at home. I’ve seen the world change rapidly in 32 years of exploration,” he notes.
One of the most shocking changes he’s witnessed involves seeing polar bears dying. “A polar bear can swim around 90 miles but can only walk 20 miles a day, so is more adapted to the ocean it lives in; it finds its food in the ocean and not on land. And when you see that you have a drowned polar bear that’s forced to swim, you’ve got to start asking yourself the hard questions. Today in the polar waters there are waves forming, because ice keeps the water calm. If the ice disappears and the wind blows over the water, that’s when you start creating waves.
These waves are now eroding the coastlines of northern Alaska, Canada and Siberia. So now we put the polar bear in water, swimming through waves, and the ice is more than a hundred miles out from land. And imagine he’s hungry, he’s got to swim to ice he can’t get to; all of a sudden he decides to make a U-turn. He’s weak; he gets caught up in the waves; he drowns.” This and many other environmental experiences have inspired Horn to work harder to raise awareness. He has established initiatives like the Horn Foundation and has sailed the world carrying the sustainability message.
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In fact, while Horn dreams of participating in the Paris to Dakar Rally, he refuses to contribute to pollution. “I decided to develop a car that doesn’t pollute at all. This led me to hydrogen as an energy source and for the past two-and-a-half years, I worked with a startup on hydrogen fuel cells to change mobility and to lead us away from fossil fuels. So not only do I explore, but I find that as I get older, I am more purposefully going into an industry where I can make a big change for everybody.”
According to Horn: “There’s always got to be something that makes you want to wake up in the morning. That passion that I have for life and that zest I have, that energy wakes me up.”
