Mike Horn. “We almost missed the moment when we could really heal our planet”

Is there a corner of the globe that Mike Horn hasn’t explored? During more than thirty years of expeditions, this extreme adventurer has had the opportunity to contemplate the most beautiful panoramas, but also to experience the most dangerous. Go down the Amazon alone, travel around the world in the Arctic Circle, cross Antarctica. Nothing hurts him. It is precisely because she is the epitome of flexibility that more than twenty years ago she was appointed ambassador by Swiss-based Italian watchmaker Panerai (Grand Prix de l’Héroine-Madame Figaro). Founded in 1860 in Florence, the company made a name for itself early on by developing, among other things, high-precision instruments for the national military fleet.

Panerai then became a master of the art of expert adventure watchmaking, envisioning dive watches and other exceptional chronographs. Mike Horn, for his part, never leaves his Submersible, each model of which is designed to withstand extreme conditions, from the cold of the Arctic to the suffocating humidity of South America. At a time when climate change is affecting megacities as well as the most remote places, a South African researcher is now taking time to play the role of a relay runner to warn some and encourage others. Before we set sail again, this time we go to Greenland.

Madame Figaro. – Adventurer, explorer, environmental whistleblower… We lend you all the hats. How would you define yourself? ?
Mike Horn. – I never asked myself this question. Simply because I’ve always done what I love without trying to fit into a box. It was others who assigned me labels with opinions about the risks and commitments I took. A little crazy explorer, a daredevil who never stops… Everyone sees me differently. I never really thought about becoming an explorer or an adventurer, I became one because of people’s perception of me.

What gave you a taste for adventure? ?
I was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa with a father who gave me a lot of freedom. My only constraint was to be home by 6pm. Actually, my father gave me my first watch so that I always have a sense of time. This freedom forced me to surpass myself, but also forced me to take responsibility for every decision I made.

You have been traveling the world for over thirty years. Have you seen the planet change? ?
Yes, and that changes a lot. Fifteen years ago, when I began my first expeditions around the Arctic Circle, we could already observe the slow erosion of the permafrost (frozen basement, also called permafrost, editor’s note) and encountering completely disoriented bears on an increasingly smaller iceberg as they drowned to death. All the signs I see are worrying. In Greenland, where I have been for nine months now, nine billion tons of ice melted last summer. We know that our problems are not from yesterday, but twenty or thirty years ago. We almost missed the moment when we could truly heal our planet.

What do you think it’s too late? ?
They say pessimists are ex-optimists with a lot of experience. I am and remain an optimist. Saying that it’s too late is the simplest thing, we release ourselves from all responsibility, we surrender. We must take our responsibilities with pride. And then, the mindset changes. The way we consume and move around today is changing, and fast. There is also a whole younger generation that is concerned about and committed to the future of the planet. It is the latter that we need to give strength to act today. We need to stimulate and nurture their ideas about the environment, develop them and make them viable. This is what I am trying to do with my incubation program, Pangea X, which selects and supports projects with environmental or social impact.

Do your campaigns have a different purpose today? ?
Saving the planet has always been part of my philosophy. Nature has given me so much in my thirty-two years of hiking that it’s my turn to return the favor. Today I am in the process of sharing more. I’ve long believed that to protect the people you love, it’s best to keep them close to you, in a bubble. But the real way to protect them is to give them the tools they need to make the right decisions at the right time. I’m not 20 anymore, I’m even approaching 60, and sometimes I get a little tired of what I’ve been through. My campaigns have changed. today I want to pass on what I have learned to the new generation and show what nature can bring us.

You constantly push your limits, sometimes putting yourself in danger. What do you find in this self-transcendence? ?
I want to stay adventurous. I like to feel strong emotions, to test my limits. My military training and then my life as a scout shaped me. It is in adversity that we discover ourselves, innovate, surpass ourselves. My studies make me stronger, give me confidence and hopefully inspire those who think they can’t be helpful.

What is your relationship with time? ?
Time is lived much more intensely when you take a lot of risks, it increases your desire to live tenfold. I have always been carried away, even inhabited by this vital impulse. I’ve sailed around the world twenty-seven times, circumnavigated the equator, crossed the North Pole… When I was young, I didn’t take the time to understand and appreciate what these experiences could give me. For a long time I was in a kind of race against time, against death. Today I take more time to think, savor, live in the moment.

You have been a Panerai ambassador for over twenty years. What does this partnership bring you? ?
It was thanks to Panerai that I was able to start researching at a higher level rather than doing it on my own. And it is because of them that I can continue to do what I do today. They sponsored some of my expeditions, such as Pangea, the crossing of all seas and oceans, where we carried out ecological projects in each of the twelve phases. It wasn’t until 2001 that a meeting with the chairman of the Richemont Group, owner of Panerai, who put his watch on my wrist, changed my life completely. This man has been there since the beginning and I stand by the word I gave him years ago when we worked together.