Schooled by far North

The Horn daughters put to the adventure test…

Everybody knows Mike Horn. He is a professional adventurer who carried out some amazing solitary expeditions: he swam down the Amazon, he went round the world following the equator, and, lately, he went round the Arctic Circle, against winds and streams. He has experienced the most extreme situations and braved the most unthinkable dangers.

For instance, on the ice field, when it was fifty degrees centigrade under zero, his whole equipment caught fire; or, still in the far North, he has walked for forty-eight hours, stopped putting up his tent by a furious tempest… Each time he was in a difficult situation, thinking of his family helped him holding on. And each time he was living extraordinary moments, all by himself, he was thinking of his wife and daughters.

And now, he wants to share his dream with his daughters.

That’s why the whole family decided to arrange the expedition he his telling about in this book. They went across the Bylot Island, in Canadian far North, a nature reserve where mildest temperatures never exceed five degrees centigrade under zero, even during summer. A land which is a whole ice field, where the elements request great resistance and constant attention.

Under such conditions, Annika — twelve years old — and Jessica — eleven years old — will have their first experience of the far North. And the lessons they will learn will be with them during their whole life. They will learn rigour and tenacity, but also the adventurers’ wisdom which consists in never acting against the elements but adapting to them, paying attention to all the details, knowing how to watch the nature not to fall into its traps. Time will become their ally when, like any child, they are inclined to impatience. And, above all, the human teachings will leave a deep mark on them: the warm camps on the ice field, the precious encounters, the universal friendship. And they will understand, like anyone should, how important is to protect the globe from ourselves…

Mike did get what he wanted. He passed on to his daughters what his own experience had made him understand. Everyone should, at least once in its life, be schooled by far North…