Leo Le Bon
Sophie Atherton
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Leo Le Bon
In 1968, when most Americans considered“ adventure travel” an oxymoron, I founded Mountain Travel USA with fellow mountaineers, the first US company dedicated exclusively to taking civilians on active adventures, treks and expeditions to places like Nepal, Tibet, and Antarctica, to trek, to climb and camp. That company became MT Sobek, still a major industry leader today. We were very successful, and the business grew under my vision until 1990 when I retired.
I am a mountaineer of the high mountains, but also a Yosemite lad on 5.8 to 5.9. I live in California and close to those cliffs, but as a father, businessman and above all a prudent fellow, I have avoided the very steep North Faces and highest in the world. So, I am now 91 and in good health and still ride my bike. I was born in Belgium but have been a US citizen for 70 years.
I’ ve recently published my memoir‘ Trail Blazing the Unknown’, chronicling six decades of pioneering expeditions and featuring 300 photographs, some of which were taken by my good friend John Cleare, a former member of OWPG who passed away recently. The story isn’ t just personal; it’ s the untold history of how active adventure travel evolved from a genuinely complex undertaking to the accessible tourism industry we know today. The contrast between the pioneering era and today’ s travel landscape makes for an interesting comparison.
This is my fourth book. Of my three earlier books perhaps best known, is the Twelve Great Treks of the World, I also did Majestic Mountains of Six Continents, and The Adventurous Travellers Guide.
Website: https:// www. wanderlustconsulting. com /
Submission deadline for the Winter issue is 31st October.
Sophie Atherton
© Tony Buckingham
Writing about the outdoors has been part of my work as journalist and writer since my first job as a reporter nearly 25 years ago. I got that job, on the Western Telegraph in Pembrokeshire, partly on the strength of a tip off about Skomer Island getting a new tractor and I went to cover the story for the paper on the day the tractor arrived. Reporting mostly wasn’ t outdoorsy enough for me though and I soon moved on to work as a regional media & communications officer for the RSPB in Exeter. What a treat getting paid to visit nature reserves and go birding- and then write about how great it is! Good things do sometimes come to an end though and I moved on to mostly writing about brewing, beer and pubs. I did manage to get outdoors professionally at times, to write about the best pubs for birdwatching or stories involving hop growing, but I reached a point where I couldn’ t stop thinking how good it felt when my job was doing publicity for nature and that I wanted to get back to it. Since then I’ ve done nearly 100 issues of a nature newsletter called What are you looking at?( WAYLA) and had nature writing commissions from The Telegraph and Bird Watching magazine. Beer and pub writing is still usefully bread & butter for me, but I’ m currently working on two nature books that I hope to find a publisher for in the near future.
Website: https:// sophieatherton. com / Newsletter: https:// sophiesnaturenews. substack. com /
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Autumn 2025 OUTDOOR FOCUS 3