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freeze your feet. I use the same socks that he used, and my boots are made out of Cordura, not leather, but it’s the same shape. I sailed down to Antarc- tica as Shackleton did in 2017, and I crossed the Antarctic alone which he never could do because he had so many people to take care of. And when you get rid of the people, then obviously, you need to rely a lot more on yourself and your knowledge, and your experience in these extreme conditions.
What’s the timeline for What’s Left?
We’ll be leaving early next year. First, we’ll spend four or five months in the Arctic, frozen in the ocean, and do a little bit of study of the accumulation of snow that will give us a good indication of the ice melt. Then I’ll head down back to the Amazon jungle, where I swam down the Amazon River in 1997, and then I will go down to Antarctica. It’s a three-year trip around the world, going to places that I’ve seen before to see how they’ve changed.
You’ve seen some of the most spectacular places on earth. What is one experience from your travels that you’ll never forget?
Some of the most amazing places that I’ve seen have been in the worst weather, in massive storms when all of a sudden, alone in my tent, I just felt safe and comfortable. So it’s not only what the eyes see, it’s how the brain translates what the eyes see. And then getting that feeling of comfort and warmth is sometimes better than the most beautiful sunrise or sunset that you can have. The
last expedition I did, crossing the North Pole from Alaska to Svalbard on the other side of the world, we did it at night. There is no sun, and no light for four months, and just looking at the moon is among
the greatest memories I have.
Why is a mechanical watch such an important part of your explorer’s toolkit?
I’ve been partners with Panerai for 21 years, and we’ve made six limited edition watches together, but it’s not the time that’s important, it’s know- ing that I’m going in the right direction. Time is related to the position of the sun and the moon, and when you know the time where you are and you look at the moon, you can always know the direction that you’re going. That’s how mariners have navigated around the world for centuries. And when you go to the North Pole or the South Pole, you need a watch to resist the influences of the magnetic fields so the watch won’t lose time. If you take a normal watch to minus 60 or minus 70 degrees Celsius, the working part of the watch actually contracts because of the cold, and it either accelerates or completely stops. And you can’t have a liquid crystal GPS in those environments because the screen freezes. So knowing how to deal with those conditions was basically how the relationship started. They could find 100 celeb- rities who are better looking, younger, and more interesting, but there’s only one Mike Horn that can test the watch in these extreme conditions. So Panerai has allowed me to go to these places, and all I do for them in return is test their watches.
How does the collaborative design process work?
We start with what I need the watch to do and where I’m going. If it’s the polar regions or 8,000 metres in altitude, I give them the extreme weather that the watch has to be able to accom-
modate, I give them the position of where I’m going on Earth, what influence the magnetic fields will have on the watch, and the period that I’m going away for. For the Arctic expedition, it took me 808 days — that’s nearly two years and three months with the watch — so I didn’t have the luxury of having it serviced. That’s when they design the watch more for durability, and make the little gears more resistant than something that you’d wear in town, for example. There are very few watch brands today that want to go through those challenges and that’s why this relationship has been ongoing for so long. The watches that they’ve made for me have always worked perfectly, and there are no shortcuts for them.
The five buyers of the 2020 Panerai Submers- ible EcoPangaea Tourbillon GMT Mike Horn Edition, which was made from a piece of your boat, Pangaea, were invited to accompany you on an Arctic expedition. Now that global travel has resumed, what can you tell us about the plans for this trip?
It’s a pre-planned route that we’re doing, start- ing in Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean, where I finished my crossing of the North Pole in 2019. There are more polar bears there than humans, so first of all, it’s to be able to expose them to the flora and fauna of the island. And then it’s getting them in contact with the ice, to over- come crevasses and sleep in tents on ice that’s there from the last ice age. I want to be able to take them to a place where they can feel what I felt during my exploration and I’m so excited because for the first time I’m taking people into my playground.
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