Among the 571 participants who took the exit of the Dakar, there is one who arrived directly from the North Pole, from where he was able to escape after being stuck in the ice for a month while crossing in skiing in the dark. This is Mike Horn, an inveterate adventurer whose last mischief was about to leave the pentacampeón on motorcycles Cyril Despres, his great friend, with whom he had committed to be his co-pilot in a UTV (light buggy).

In the weeks prior to the start of the rally, I was surprised not to see Despres on the list of entries, which has run the Dakar on 18 occasions, 14 of them by motorcycle and four by cars. Only less than 48 hours from the first stage in Jeddah, the organization confirmed the participation of the Frenchman, who had waited until the last minute for his adventure partner.

"We could not leave. I had to wait for a full moon and the temperature rose to break the ice. I sailed directly to Tromsø, in Norway, and from there I took a plane to Jeddah," Horn confirms. The frozen tip of his fingers confirms the harsh conditions of four months of winter at the North Pole.

Nine months without a bed

"With so much time in the dark now it bothers me to the lightest light. I have not seen a sunbeam in more than five months, with temperatures up to -40 ° C, winds of up to 40 knots per hour and on an ice shelf that it's constantly moving, "described Horn, born in Johannesburg 53 years ago.

On the two nights he spent in Jeddah before departure, Horn tried to eat and sleep as much as he could to recover the form. "On the expedition I ate 7,000 calories a day. That's like three or four times more than a normal person ingests. Now I'm trying to return my stomach to its size," he said.

The night he landed in Jeddah was the first where he could sleep in a bed after nine months, because before crossing the North Pole he had been in the Himalayas climbing the K2. "That first night I had a very bad time, I felt very uncomfortable and in the end I lay on the floor to sleep," he said. "What I valued most was being able to sit in a toilet and have water. It's those little details that ultimately matter," he said.

"I like learning"

The Swiss also acknowledged that he has no experience as a co-pilot, but that he can help his friend with motivation, since he also gives workshops to groups such as the German soccer team and the Indian cricket team.

"I am a person who likes to learn. If I am going to climb peaks of 8,000 meters, I try to surround myself with very good climbers who know more than me. When I go to the jungle, I do it with the special forces of Brazil, who know more than me, "he settled.

Horn argued that his life "is surrounded by experiences" because his philosophy is just the opposite of those who think we should rest. "There will be time when I die," he said. "I appreciate life. We only have one and many times we do not live it with its full potential. We only have 30,000 days and there is no excuse to live them fully," he concluded.

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