Pangaea has a fleeting visit to Indonesia, passing the great surfing beaches of the Mentawai Islands and heads around the South Eastern tip of Sumatra towards Singapore.

Mike and Pangaea's crew are now heading North towards Singapore where Pangaea will find a secure mooring while Mike treks the Himalayas with a group of aspiring Young Explorers.

24 hours with Mike Horn and the young Explorers on the Matterhorn Glacier.

Read about it here….

It was a hard decision for the Mike Horn Team.The Himalaya Young Explorers have been selected !

Congratulations to the following YOUNG EXPLORER`S selected to join Mike Horn for the Himalaya Expedition:

Alexander Groos, 20, Germany / Kai Pryce-Fitchen, 16, South Africa / Tiziana Gees, 19, Switzerland / Jye Kluske, 19, Australia /  Daniel Hübner, 20, Germany / Hugo Clément 17, France  / Erica Wineland-Thomson, 20, USA  /  Basil Tan She Jeeng, 20, Singapore / Lauren Morrell, 15, USA
 
It was an emotional event at the announcement. Shortly after the announcement the Young Explorer found themselves running short on time, prepared and packed ready to return home.

Day 9: 11 May, by Daniel & Robs

Today consisted of many awesome activities including building a raft and using it. We ended off the raid with a big 5 hour hike. Everyone was exhausted but continued to be motivated until the very end.

The Gees Yaks arrived in first place, and The Tigers in second place. After an incredible two days, everyone chilled and relaxed for the rest of the day tending to blisters and tired friends:)

We ended off the day with a delish Raclette, a tradional Swiss meal of cheese and potato before falling into bed.  

After an amazing two day journey, our friendship grew stronger than ever before making everyone very sad to know that we’d be leaving each other tomorrow.

Despite being a very tough two days, the raid will always be remembered as the day that every single one of us pushed ourselves to beyond our limits.

Day 9: 10 May, by Daniel & Robs

For those of you who arent aware what the raid is, it is an extreme version of a treasure hunt minus the treasures.. 🙂

After hearing about it for ages, the day of the legendary raid finally arrived! After being divided into two groups of 8, we were given our equipment and a few wise words from Martin and Mike. Unfortunently one special member, Ashwini, had to leave us to go home for a college interview.

The two groups, the Tigers and The Gees Yaks, consisted of

The Tigers: Daniel, Francois, Lauren, Robs, Basil, Iga, Tizi and Shruti.

The Gees Yaks: Hugo, Leon, Erica, Alex, Jye, Kai and Elisa.

We (Daniel and Robs) were in the same group, the legendary Tigers:) After guzzling down a carbo-loaded lunch, we were all getting extremely excited and eager to get going.

After meeting in the dining room just after 1pm, we were all packed with our matching black backpacks. The tigers were slightly taken aback when the Gees Yaks walked into the room with an awesome display of tribal face paint. Feeling slightly disadvataged in the spirit department, Basil decided it would be a good idea to bring along his whistle..from that moment on Basil would not be seen without it:) 

3-2-1 and the raid started. Each team got their maps and a compass and began looking for the points that needed to be followed in order to complete the course.

Finding our points first, the Tigers set off first on our bikes towards our meeting spot where we met Claude-Alain, our amazing guide. The Gees Yaks were guided by Martin and his muscles.

Our first stage was a bike ride from Hotel de Ville up onto a steep mountain trail. After putting up an awesome fight and giving her absolute best, Shruti from The Tigers, decided to have a break and travel with Mike and the rest of the Team in the car. It was awesome to have a team mate encouraging us on our way! 🙂

Everyone gave their best and despite being completely exhausted, many managed to smile in their spot interviews with Mike along the way.

After finishing the bicycle trail we started on our hike. After hiking for over three hours, through sun, rain and snow, we finally reached the summit. The next obstacle was to via ferrata, travelling across a rock face attached to your team and cables. It was incredible. Team work was essential here and everyone did a great job. The views were unbelievable!

On the descent, Basil unfortunently twisted his ankle but continued on like a real trouper ! Both teams did incredible teamwork and kept eachother motivated thoughout the course.

After the descend the teams were instructed to carry their bikes up a steep mountain path. This was very hard but the reward was awesome- an amazing downhill bike ride. We continued running on adrenelin and after completing a very fun team work exercise, and an amazing flight on ‘the flying fox’, we continued cycling late into the night.

After being on the go for 12 hours, with only a 5 minute stop for food and a smile from Caroline, we finially reached our camping destination for the night. After pitching our tents in groups of three, we got our food and started setting up the tents of the next team who arrived a while later. After getting into our cozy sleeping bags we fell asleep very quickly and 4 hours later were woken up by Mike Horn shaking our tents calling “This is not a sleeping raid !“

A very sleepy and excited group of 14 Young Explorers jumped out their tents and got ready for the day ahead.

Day 8: 9 May, by Shruti & Francios

Happy Mothers Day ?

Oh yes thats what it is today here. And Caroline here is playing the role of a mother, with sixteen children off course ! She has been a wonderful person who is always approachable and helpful. After all the exciting days that have passed with something happening every moment today was a little different. Want to know why ?

Morning Exercise :

This morning as I woke up tired and  sleepy, I saw everyone geared up ready for the morning exercise. Biking. Something which is different from what it is in India. Thankfully, kind Alexis ,came to my rescue this morning. Starting to cycle in bikes this different was a task, and Alexis was so patient and encouraging without which off course I wouldnt have been able to do it. He is another person in the team here who is always ready to help  with a huge smile.Thanks Alexis. I can finally manage to cycle now.

Todays activities ;

Following which we had an interesting session with Ms.Roswitha. She is a geography teacher at the university of Munich in Germany. After all the activities that we had during this camp, that « break » was one of the part that we were all looking forward, finally we were going to learn some stuff about the country where the expedition will take place. It started with an introduction of  Pakistan, its location, culture, vegetation, ethnicity, language, etc. Then we focused on the main part, the Kumarakom mountains.  We learned a lot about landscapes which brought about a new dimension to the aspect of mountains. Then Ms. Roswitha gave us information about glaciers and satellite pictures which she is an expert in.

We compared some sample maps of glaciers that we will pass through and it was really impressive to gain that amount of information that we could get from those maps such as the length of glaciers, lakes formed by the melting snow and the increasing distance between the lakes over the years.

Abseiling :

The evening was something none would have imagine.An overwhelming experience of abseiling.  As we made it to the destination and got all geared up to abseil , iIrealised how scared I was to  go down a mountain with ropes.  It was something that I would have thought of as impossible. Then it struck me  I need to push my limits, and giving up is not something that should be done early. I knew i wanted to do it but the fear set in. Thanks to Lauren, Daniel, Francois and the others I took my step forward to perform the task. Martin and Mousse played an important role for me to actually finish my task succeessfully. It might not be a big deal for many, but at that moment I knew I had done something after learning not to give up. An overwhelming feeling to set foot on the rocks to have managed to the fairly easy task for many.

Evening :

Following the happiness was Pizza and Elisas special Brazilan dessert.While there is so much excitement for the much looked forward Raid there are pangs of fear that pass but then again they all seem to go away after listening to Mike Horn giving his speech with truck loads of motivation.

The day ended with the projection of the promoting movies for the Pangaea Young Explorers program. We were three groups who came with different ideas about  ways to spread the message of Pangaea. At the end, three stories, three ways to film and three amazing clips that you can see soon on the website.

Mike and the team were really happy of the work we did, and they gave us a speech about the raid which is coming and the selecting process for the Himalayan expedition. Get back to the reality, the camp is nearly over and we have to motivate ourselves and each other to make the dream come true.

See you in two days for fresh news of the camp and don’t forget «Pushing ourselves to the maximum is what matters, for its worth it.»

See previous galleries

Day 7: 8 May, by Iga & Jye

The day started abnormally early due to the five o’clock wake up call of the procession in the streets of Châteaux d’Oex. An early morning run through the village was the start to an exciting day of video editing and photography workshops. Using tips and techniques from Ben and Dimitri we explored the surroundings of the local church in search of landscape photographs. After taking many interesting photos we were then introduced to a computer program which enables the photos taken to be edited to improve the imagines appearance.
 
Following the photography workshop we were split into our video groups where we used the handy cams to produce our short movies promoting the Pangaea Young Explorers Program. Using tips from “Mooses” video and film techniques workshop on Friday night we worked as groups to film a video. After returning to the Hotel Markus provided an interesting insight into editing our film electronically using Premier Pro.
 
After a very busy and creative day Michael Scholl gave an informative talk about his work with Sharks in South Africa. Michael made all the Young Explorers aware of the problems facing sharks particularly fining for soup for the Asian communities.
 

See previous galleries

Day 6 : 7th May 2010 Written By : Basil & Tiziana

The young explorers woke up at 6.30am today to prepare for our 2nd morning jog. We assumed the run would be similar to the previous one which had a downhill route. However, to our surprise, Martin led us on a uphill terrian. Andy and Bryan from the Mayo Clinic joined us in the morning run too. The temperature was about 4 degrees. The uphill run was really tough as the slopes were really steep.  However, we pushed and encouraged each other to complete the strenous task. We saw goats and cows along the way which made the journey less tiring. Finally, we reached the top and the view was spectacular but we could not stay long to enjoy the amazing scenery as we have to run downhill, back to the hotel to get ready for BREAKFAST !!!

After a hearty breakfast, we split up into our groups. The 1st group continued the fitness test conducted by the Mayo Clinic Team, while the second group had a seminar on First Aid and the dangers of frost bite.

Mayo Clinic Fitness Test :
We did various exercises, which tested us on our strength, flexbility to stamina. The sit-and-reach test tested us on our ability to reach further than our toes when sitting down. The single leg squart, curl ups (sit ups) and push ups tested our strength. We had a fat percantage test being done by squeezing our fats using a caliper ! Another test was to measure the capacity of our lungs. After all these indoor tests, we went out to do a jump and reach test, followed by shuttle run. The finale of the test is the Cooper Test which requires us to run as far as we can in 12 minutes.
Basil : ‘The Cooper Test was the toughest test for me as the atmospheric air is much cooler than what I breathe in Singapore. It was all mental !’

Tiziana : ‘It is very important that we push each other to our limits so that we can achieve more as a team.’
First Aid & Frostbite Seminar :
Martin presented horrendous photos of victims suffering from severe frostbite. There are 4 stages of frostbite.  It starts from mild decolouration and blisters to the final stage of the affected area turning black. We learnt techniques of mitigating frostbite from occuring on us. These techniques include being active, keeping dry and most importantly proper protection. Moving on, the first aid session was crucial in teaching us some innovative methods of making a stretcher using backpacks. After the theory lessons on first aid, we had a mini competition between the 2 groups. The winner has yet to be annouced !

Tiziana : ‘I was surprised how comfortable the makeshift stretcher is, and how easy it is to make one ! The process is very logical.’

Basil : ‘The photos on frostbite were extremely disturbing ! However, it managed to send a powerful message across to the youth explorers on the importance of keeping warm and dry. In Singapore, frostbite is injury that is not talked about much and I am fortunate to be given a proper education on it.’

Katadyn Presentation :
Trix, CEO of Katadyn, presented different products which can be used to produce clean and portable water at an affordable price. Other than producing clean water, Katadyn supplies stoves and gas canisters for outdoor enthusiasts. One of the highlights of the presentation is the magnesium flint fire starter ! Matches and lighters are not needed anymore as this amazing fire starter is effective even in wet and cold conditions. Katadyn is a strong partner of the Pangaea Expedition. It supports projects of young explorers who are keen to reach out to communities who need clean water.

Young explorers are excited to be involved in such projects to provide a helping hand to the less fortunate communities.
Tiziana : ‘ The young explorer can be glad to have such a strong partner which is willing to support fresh water projects around the world.’

Basil : ‘The accessibility of fresh water is unequitable around the world. It is important that companies such as Katadyn has decided to go the extra mile to provide clean water to the communities  at an affordable price.’

Video and Photography Seminar :
After an amazing dinner,  our videographer, Nic (Moose), gave us a short presensation on filming and video production. We were split up into 3 groups to produce a promotional video for the Pangaea Youth Expedition. Even though it was late, we started to brainstorm together to come out with a structure for our videos.

Tiziana : ‘It was a long day with different interesting activities ! I’m looking forward to another fulfilling day with the Mike Horn Team and the young explorers !’

Basil : ‘ It is interesting to co-write a blog entry with Tiziana as we shared various ideas and helped each other to express ourselves ! What I am happy to see today is young explorers like Simon, Florence and Manuel from previous expeditions coming back to Château d’Oex to cheer us on !’

DAY 4: By Alexander Erica

Tuesday night we all prepared our gear for the following day to the Matterhorn Glacier.  We were given mountaineering boots, tents, mats, sleeping bags, cooking gear, harnesses, food, a Werner knife and new Petzl headlamps !  All of this equiptment we packed in our backpacks and took with us the following day to Zermatt and the Matterhorn Glacier.

Wednesday, we ate breakfast around 5 am and we were on our way by 6am. The team from the Mayo Clinic gave half of us arm bands to wear, which took measurements of our energy expended throughout our time at higher elevations. 

The other half wore wrist bands with a finger clip that measured oxygen levels and pulse rate while sleeping at 3,750 m (approx. 12,000 ft).  We left Château-d ‘ Oex in the rain and after 2 ½ hours by car, 20 minute train ride to Zermatt and three cabel cars up the mountain, it was blizzarding.  We set up the tents inside the building and then walked them outside into the storm to set them up.  The wind was very strong and our tents were almost being wipped out of our hands as we tried to secure them to the ground with poles and ice piks. It was thrilling…especially for Jye (from Australia) and Robs (from South Africa), who have never seen snow before !  Basil and Leon, from Singapore, have never seen such high and impressive mountains before so this excursion was very new to them and all of the rest of the young explorers.  

We slept three to a tent and the Mike Horn team, French guides and French reporters slept in a large neon green, bubble-like tent that took all of us to set up. To weather out the storm, we hunkered down in our tents and tried to boil water for soup with only one lighter that didn’t work at first. However, after warming and drying it in our armpits, we were succesful and happily drank our soup. 

At 8 pm the storm passed and we all stepped out of our tents in time to see the sun slowly set behind the majestic Matterhorn.  It was a sight we will all remember vividly !  Some of the young explorers were slightly sick from the altitude, however they were able to see the view.  After the sun set we all ran to our tents because it became dark very fast.  Some of the tent groups were succesful in making noodles for dinner and some ate snacks before we all settled down for a good sleep….or so we thought….The tents were very narrow, wet and cold. 

This day was a great experience and challenge for all of us and we all learned a lot from it ! We can’t wait for our next adventure !