A New Memoir from a Pioneer of Adventure Travel

Recently, I received an unexpected email from American adventurer Leo Le Bon. I hadn’t heard of him before, which isn’t surprising in the adventure world, where many fly under the radar or, like Leo, belong to an earlier generation with less online visibility. A quick Google search revealed a few articles about Leo, including one titled Leo Le Bon, the Godfather of Trekking.

As we exchanged emails, I learned that Leo has spent over 50 years trekking, climbing and travelling across the globe, from Africa and Pakistan to China, Nepal, South America, Greenland, Antarctica, and beyond. In 1967, he co-led the first American led commercial trek to the Annapurna region, where he met and befriended the great Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

After returning from Nepal that same year, Leo co-founded Mountain Travel, America’s first adventure travel company, which played a key role in the growth of the adventure travel movement. Now 90, Leo wants to share the stories and lessons from his pioneering career in adventure tourism. So he reached out to me to help spread the word in the UK and Europe about his upcoming memoir, Trail Blazing The Unknown, set for self-publication this month.

Leo Le Bon in Greenland. Credit: Leo Le Bon

From the outline of the memoir I've seen, Leo shares stories from his travels to all corners of the globe. He also reflects on his early years in Belgium during World War II and the beginnings of commercial adventure travel. The book is illustrated with over 300 photographs, showcasing his travels in Nepal, Tibet, the North Pole, Alaska, the Sahara, Patagonia, and Antarctica, as well as images of wildlife and climbing expeditions. Until recently, the foreword was set to be written by John Cleare, the celebrated British mountain photographer, but sadly, John passed away last month at the age of 88.

In the new year, I’ll be contacting editors of adventure and travel publications to gauge interest in receiving a review copy or publishing an excerpt from Trail Blazing The Unknown. If any of my existing contacts would like to be connected with Leo, please let me know, and I will be happy to facilitate. Leo plans to distribute the book via Amazon.