The Best of Wanderlust (A GeoEx eBook)

Int roduc t ion

GEOEX AT 40: ADVENTURES IN THE WORD & THE WORLD

G eographic Expeditions traces its origin to 15 intrepid trekkers who were the first American group ever allowed into the Tibetan backcountry. The year was 1981, and as they huddled in chilly exhilaration in a tent at 16,500 feet on the Tibetan side of Mount Everest, these trailblazing adventurers cajoled their leader, a spunky woman named Jo Sanders who had magically procured the precious permits from Chinese authorities, to start a company specializing in journeys to recently forbidden regions of Tibet and China. A year later, in 1982, Jo started the company, and named it InnerAsia. She partnered with travel pioneers George Doubleday and Al Read, and in ensuing years, they brought on a stellar group of impassioned travel experts, many of whom still work for the company today. Eight years later, when it announced its shiny new name, Geographic Expeditions had already established itself as one of the planet’s premier travel companies. As it evolved, GeoEx (as it quickly came to be called) pioneered adventure travel to alluring, unexplored places: the Kangshung Face of Everest, far western China, South Georgia Island, the length and breadth of Bhutan, the mountains of

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