Mercedes-Benz has been a long time friend and title sponsor of world explorer Mike Horn and his PANGAEA Project for years. Over the last 4 years, Horn has taken advantage of his position by traveling the world with his PANGAEA sailboat to bring social and ecological projects to life during various expeditions. The video from AMG and the photos form Mike Horn himself show a small bit of what the PANGAEA Project has seen.
What is the PANGAEA Project and who is Mike Horn?
Mike Horn is often acknowledged as the greatest explorer of our time. His adventures extend the boundaries of human achievement and environmental awareness. His latest endeavor is The PANGAEA Project and Young Explorers Program.
The PANGAEA Project is: A 4-year circumnavigation of the world through a series of 12-scheduled expeditions each to different terrain including mountain, desert, ocean and arctic snow. For each Pangaea expedition, Mike and his team select students between the ages of 15 and 20 to accompany him.
The expedition is named Pangaea after the supercontinent that existed 250 million years ago. It represents the objective of ONE WORLD which Mike Horn and his Young Explorers set out by land and see to Explore, Learn and Act.
The project has covered over 100,000 miles, reaching the North and South Poles and crossing all the continents and oceans. Mike Horn’s mission aims to unite the continents again with a powerful environmental message of conservation and preservation. During each leg of the expedition Mike Horn and the young explorers seek to understand the interaction between man, nature and the elements.
Mike Horn’s vessel — also named PANGAEA — is a Mercedes-Benz double-master measuring 35 meters (115 feet) in length and serves as one of the world’s largest and most versatile expedition sailboats. The hull is made from recyclable aluminum.
The first group of Young Explorers joined Mike in Antarctica in January of 2009, the second group in New Zealand in May of the same year. In 2010, Mike Horn and three groups of Young Explorers traveled to Malaysia, India and the Himalayas, respectively. This year, the three more expeditions pushed off to Mongolia, Kamchatka and the Magnetic North Pole.
Mike Horn and his team are always searching for high school pupils or college students who would be interested in joining him on the next phase of this program.
If selected, the young explorers are flown out at the expedition’s expense to to join Pangaea for two week period. When they return to their communities full of knowledge regarding endemic obstacles and possible solutions, they are expected to bear responsibility in sharing the message with their local communities and peers.
Potential candidates who apply to join Mike Horn’s Pangaea Expedition will be invited to visit Chateau d’Oex, Switzerland — Mike Horn World Headquarters — in the Swiss Alps for a training and selection camp, costs for which will also be paid by the expedition. This includes intensive courses on the technological, environmental, physical, medical and communication skills required to prepare the participants to meet the challenges of the expedition. All workshops and outings are run by experienced and professional instructors. The tasks included map work, sailing, paragliding, physical tests, glacier walking, climbing and abseiling.
For more information on Mike Horn and the Pangaea project, please visit www.mikehorn.com.
