| 1969 |
Leo Le Bon, Allen Steck, and Barry Bishop found Mountain Travel. |
| MT's first-ever trek to Nepal takes place in October.
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| 1970 |
MT organizes the first sailing cruise to the Galápagos Island (for the Sierra Club).
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| 1971 |
MT leads the fist circular trek of the Cordillera Blanca in Peru. |
| MT has author Colin Fletcher scout the first "pure" walking safari in Kenya.
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| 1972 |
Leo Le Bon takes the first group of Sahara camel enthusiasts to explore the high ramparts of the famous Tassili N'Ajjer in Algeria.
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| The summit of Aconcagua, highest peak in the Western Hemisphere is attained on the first commercial climb, operated by MT.
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| 1973 |
Allen Steck leads the first expedition to the USSR. This is also start of the company's relationship with the Soviet Mountaineering Federation.
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| Richard Bangs and John Yost found Sobek Expeditions. The first commercial trip is on Ethiopia's Omo River.
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| 1974 |
Mountaineer and Sierra Club director Jules Eichorn leads MT's first climbing trip to Mt. Kenya and Kilimanjaro.
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| 1975 |
Allen Steck leads an MT trek into northern Pakistan and visits famous Concordia, base camp for the climb of K2, the world's second highest peak.
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| 1978 |
Sobek makes the first decent of the Bío-Bío River in Chile.
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| 1979 |
MT offers the first US trek to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
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| 1980 |
MT organizes the first commercial US postwar expedition to climb Minya Konka, the highest peak in China outside of Tibet.
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| 1981
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MT organizes a climb and ski decent of Muztagh Ata in Sinkiang, China.
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| Sobek makes the first decent of the Zambezi River, Zimbabwe.
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| 1982 |
Sobek makes the first descent of the Dar Jung Guo River, China, the Luangwa, Zambia, and the Tambopata, Peru.
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| 1983 |
MT is the first US company to organize a trek through Sinkiang to the northern base of K2.
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| 1986 |
John Thune leads the first group of tourists to travel the Karakoram Highway over the Khunjerab Pass into China. The Silk Road tour goes on to become one of MT's most popular trips.
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| 1987 |
MT launches the first departures of the Wondrous Towers of Paine, a six-day circuit of the Paine massif.
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| 1988 |
MT initiates a new and innovative program in Continuing Medical Education.
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| 1989 |
MT fields the first commercial cross-country ski expedition to the South Pole, an epic ski traverse of the Antarctic continent which has the distinction of placing the first Americans—and the first women ever—at the Pole by an over-land route and by their own efforts.
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| 1990 |
Leo Le Bon, founder and president of MT retires from the company.
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| 1991 |
MT and Sobek Expeditions merge operations.
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| 1993 |
MTS makes first descents of the Kunar-Swat Rivers, Pakistan.
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| 1994 |
MTS makes the first descent of the Ghizar River in Pakistan.
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| The first "Save the Tiger" trip is operated, which raises funds to prevent the tiger's extinction.
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| 1995 |
MTS completes the first exploratory sea kayaking expedition to remote Cenderawasi Bay in Irian Jaya.
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| 1996 |
MTS makes the first descent of the Tekeze River, Ethiopia, a 210-mile journal through the "Grand Canyon" of Africa.
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| MTS operates first sea kayaking expedition to Scoresbysund, a 300-mile fjord system of Northeast Greenland National Park (largest national park in the world).
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| 1997 |
MTS offers the first ever sea kayaking trip to Panama's San Blas Islands.
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| 1998 |
Trip members from the first departure of the new African Golden Kingdoms trip return with glowing accounts of this exotic experience—an MTS exclusive! |
| 1999 |
MTS leads National Geographic Society on a 500-mile successful descent of the Blue Nile from the headwaters at Lake Tana to the Sudanese border. Sobek previously rafted sections of the river in the mid-1970s. |
| 2000 |
Mountain Travel Sobek acquires Alaska Discovery, the oldest and largest wilderness guiding company in Alaska. We also acquire a whitewater rafting permit for the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. |
| 2001 |
Mountain Travel Sobek launches "In the Footsteps of the Explorers" program. Adventurous travelers joined in for adventures such as a Darwin's Galapagos, John Wesley Powell's Grand Canyon, Lawrence's Arabia, and Tilman's Everest Trek. |
| 2002 |
First commercial descent of the Puyango-Tumbes River on the border of Ecuador and Peru. Up until 2002 it wasn't possible to run this river due to a border dispute between Ecuador and Peru. |
| 2004 |
The U.S. lifted travel restrictions to Libya in February 2004, and in April, Mountain Travel Sobek is the first company to bring an American tour group into this long forbidden country. |
Mountain Travel Sobek
How it Became "The Adventure Company"
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In May 1991, two venerable adventure travel companies, Mountain Travel and Sobek Expeditions, combined operations. At the time, Mountain Travel was renowned for pioneering trekking and mountaineering in remote regions around the world, while Sobek had become famous for its exploratory expeditions on previously unrun international rivers. Both had also developed a wide portfolio of related adventure trips around the world, and each had earned a reputation for pioneering destinations in remote, unexplored regions around the globe.
Mountain Travel
One of the first adventure companies in the country, Mountain Travel was founded in 1967 by three members of the American Alpine Club and the Sierra Club: Leo Le Bon, Allen Steck and Barry Bishop. Their first outing was a trek in Nepal in 1967 organized by Le Bon—the first American-led trekking expedition in the Himalaya. Mountain Travel was also the first company to offer organized treks to the Everest Base Camp (1967) and Annapurna Circuit (1976), and later pioneered commercial expeditions to Mounts Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, and Aconcagua on other continents. And in 1989, Mountain Travel ran the first commercial cross-country ski expedition to the South Pole. Although the original founders left the company to follow other pursuits, Leo Le Bon and Allen Steck continue to serve as honorary directors (Barry Bishop passed away in 1994).
Sobek Expeditions
Also in the late 1960s, two young river rafters from Bethesda, Maryland, were looking for international rivers to raft. Finally in 1973, Richard Bangs and John Yost discovered that their passion for river running could also be a way to make a living. That year, they decided to tackle the Awash, a little-known African river filled with crocodiles and hippos. They managed to recruit enough clients to pay for the trip, and successfully navigated a major river never before rafted. That first endeavor gave birth to Sobek, named after the ancient Egyptian crocodile god. Throughout the next 18 years, Sobek led first descents of 35 rivers around the world, several of which have been featured as television specials and documentaries. The company also established the first commercial rafting operations on many of these rivers, now considered classics among river rafters around the world. Sobek's legendary exploratory expeditions include the Bio-Bio (Chile), Zambezi (Zambia), the Great Bend of the upper Yangtze River (China), the Bashkaus (USSR), the Blue Nile (Ethiopia), the Upper Amazon (Peru), and the Tatshenshini (Alaska).
Over the years as the companies expanded, so have the types of adventures offered. Deluxe cruises to the Galápagos Islands and pampered walking tours in France have been added to the justly famous treks in Nepal and South America. Now travelers of every level can find a Mountain Travel Sobek trip to suit them.
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