Adventure Travel Around The World | Historical Firsts In Travel | GeoEx

GeoEx Firsts

Blazing Trails in Adventure Travel

Adventure travel through Pakistan.
Pakistan

It was an adventure into remote regions…We could not have begun to organize or even think through the alternatives with which the GeoEx team is just so familiar.

– John C.

GeoEx Firsts: Groundbreaking Journeys


Please note: “First American guided trek/tour” means that this was the first trip offered and successfully completed by a US-based adventure travel company.

1981: The Founding Trek

The founders of GeoEx (led by a spunky Jo Sanders) were inspired to start an adventure travel company while leading the first American trek to the North Face Base Camp of Everest in 1981.

GeoEx, born in 1982 as InnerAsia, then made these pioneering journeys:

1982 to 1990

  • Kangshung Face of Mt. Everest trek, Tibet: first American guided trek (1982)
  • Sichuan to Lhasa, Mt. Siguniang, Tibet: first American guided trek (1984)
  • Minya Konka, Tibet: first American guided trek (1984)
  • K2 from the North, China: first guided trek (1984)
  • Muztagata, Xingiang, China: first American guided trek (1984)
  • Mt. Bogda, Tian Shan Mountains, China (1984)
  • Kunming and Guilin, China: first American group (1984)
  • Namjagbarwa, Tibet: first American guided trek (1985)
  • Across the Khunjerab Pass, China to Pakistan: first American guided trip (1986)
  • Circumambulation of Mt. Kailas, Tibet: first American guided trek (1986)
  • Xixabangma, Tibet: first American guided trek (1986)
  • Turugart Pass: first American guided border crossing between the former Soviet Union and China (1986)
  • Unclimbed Summits Central Bhutan Himalaya (Mark Newcomb): six first ascents (1987)
  • Northern Silk Road traverse across China: first American group (1987)
  • Snow Lake, Pakistan: first American guided trek (1989)
  • Southern Patagonia Icecap, Argentina and Chile: first American guided crossing (1989)

1990 to 2000

  • Pamir Knot, Samarkand to Kashgar, USSR and China: first American guided overland border crossings  (1990)
  • Dagla, Bhutan: first American guided trek (1990)
  • Chukotka Peninsula, USSR: first English woman recce (1990)
  • Shandur Pass, Hunza Karakoram, Pakistan, Polo on the Pass, Pakistan: first American guided trip (1991)
  • Mount Kailas (Tibet) to Western Nepal: first American guided trek (1991)
  • Burma (Myanmar): the first American guided tour (1991)
  • Beringia, USSR and Alaska: first American guided trip (1991)
  • Moscow to Islamabad over the Khunjerab Pass, USSR, China, Pakistan: first American guided trip (1991)
  • Chukotka Peninsula, Russia: first American guided tour (1992)
  • Dolpo, Shey region, Nepal: first American guided trek-35 days (1991)
  • Na-Khi Kingdom, Dechen and Zhongdian, China: first American guided trip (1991)
  • Tannu Tuva, USSR: first American guided trip (1991)
  • Dumshung to Reting, Tibet: first American trek (1992)
  • Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos: first American company to legally operate trips in Vietnam since the Vietnam War, and first American guided tour in Cambodia and Laos (1992)
  • Hoa Binh and Cuc Phuong, Vietnam: first American guided trek (1993)
  • Rangoon, Burma to Kunming, China overland: first American guided trip (1993)
  • Mustang region of Nepal: first American guided trek (1993)
  • Dagestan, USSR: first American guided trip (1993)
  • Laya Region of Bhutan: six first ascents of peaks over 6000 meters (1993)
  • Iran: first American group to return to Iran after the overthrow of the Shah (1993)
  • Dzungaria, Western Mongolia and Siberia: first American guided border crossing into Tanna Tuva (1994)
  • Fan Mountains Trek, USSR: first American guided trek (1994)
  • Ho Chi Minh Trail border crossing, Vietnam – Laos (1995)
  • Laya and Masagang, Bhutan: first American guided trek (1996)
  • Rakhine State, Northern Burma: first American guided tour (1996)
  • Gelandong Peak, Tibet: first ascent of peak (1996)
  • Crossing the Taklimakan Desert, China: first American camel trek (1998)
  • Gangkhar Punseum, Bhutan: first guided trek to what is now the highest unclimbed mountain in the world (1998)
  • Musandam Peninsula, Oman: first American guided tour (1998)
  • Alborz Mountains, Iran: first American guided trek (1998)
  • Yemen: first American guided tour (1998)
  • Lhuntshi Valley, Bhutan: first American guided trek (1999)
  • Turkmenistan to Iran: first American guided border crossing trip (1999)
  • Syria: first American guided tour (1999)
  • Lebanon: first American guided tour since World War II (1999)

2000 to Present

  • South Georgia: first guided traverse of Shackleton route (2000)
  • Yunnan, China to Laos: first American guided trip (2001)
  • Southern Silk Road, Lanzhous to Kashgar, China: first American guided trip (2001)
  • Pumalin Preserve, Chilean Patagoina: first American guided trip (2004)
  • Libya: first American guided tour (2004)
  • North Korea: first (legally approved) American trip operator (2007)
  • Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan: first American guided trek (2007)
  • Patagonia, Argentina: first guided trek from Estancia Cristina to Estancia Helsingfor via Cerro Norte Pass, Argentina (2010)
  • Valle Chacabuco, Chile: first American guided trip (pre-establishment of Patagonia National Park), Chile (2013)
  • Central Bhutan: first American guided trek (2014)
  • India-Myanmar border crossing: first American guided crossing since World War II (2016)

Explore GeoEx Edge

To browse GeoEx’s most unique trips, from exhilarating treks to journeys in locales that are extra tough to navigate or verging on change, see our Edge experiences.


GeoEx eBook:
The Best of Wanderlust

An Anthology of Travel Stories
Edited by Don George
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