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After 9/11: The Future
Hanging Tough (cont.)

Even so, the number of cancellations could have been much greater, and the high retention rate heralded a quick return to normal for adventure travel. As the weeks wore on after the attacks, companies reported that a rising number of clients called to confirm that their Asia and Africa trips were still on. And new reservations for the remainder of this year and early 2002 suggest a national appetite for active travel that remains strong, though it has been redirected toward less volatile parts of the world.

Mountain Travel Sobek, for instance, reported that three-quarters of its new customers were bound for destinations in the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific; in response, the company is already adding trips to Patagonia and Peru, confident that demand will stay healthy. "They traveled during the Gulf War, and they'll travel now," says marketing director Robyn Gorman. "We expect to see a surge of interest in Latin America, North America, and the Pacific."

One high-profile outfitter remains bullish: "They traveled during the Gulf War, and they'll travel now."

Even after U.S. and British war planes attacked Afghanistan in early October, two outfitters did not back down from planned expeditions to neighboring Pakistan in 2002. While the air strikes prompted Mountain Madness to cancel its planned spring trips to K2, Mountain Travel Sobek and KE Adventure Travel both remained committed to a combined 13 trips to the Islamic nation next year.

Could adventure travelers really be more inclined to sticking to their plans than other travelers? Robert Link, chief guide for Mountain Link, thinks so, and says this is true partly because they plan and prepare more meticulously. "They're not people hopping on a cruise ship; they're buying the proper equipment and training for six months." In addition, he believes, such travelers are not easily cowed. "If you had a herd of animals, adventure travelers would be the ones living on the edge of the herd, where they face a little more danger but also get first crack at new experiences."

This pattern held with high-profile adventurers, who seemed set on pursuing their to-do lists—though with a few detours. While Ed Viesturs postponed his spring plans to return to Pakistan's 22,291-foot Nanga Parbat in his quest to summit all the world's 8,000-meter peaks, he's not staying home. Instead he shifted his attention to the south face of Nepal's 26,504-foot Annapurna.

"It was a toss-up between the two peaks anyway," says the Seattle-based alpinist. "The events this past fall decided it for me." Seasoned high-alpine climbers Christine Boskoff and Charlie Fowler remain committed to summiting both Everest, in Nepal, and K2, in Pakistan, next year—though further military action in the region could force them to postpone.

Should Pakistan's Hindu Kush and Karakoram ranges drop off the adventure map entirely, the news might be most welcomed 900 miles east, in Nepal. Though this past spring Nepal's Tourism Ministry announced it would open nine peaks that had previously been off-limits to climbers, by September the nation allowed that the number of fall expeditions had plummeted from the usual 50 to 22. However, with a year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary's first summiting of Everest set to begin in June, industry watchers suggest that the kingdom might enjoy an uptick in travelers. "Nepal is our biggest destination and 40 percent of our business, and we're pleased that we haven't seen a drop in bookings for 2002," says Andy Crisconi, owner of KE Adventure Travel. With new peaks to attempt and thinner crowds, the spring climbing and trekking season might well prove an unbeatable bargain. Says Lhawang Dhondup, partner at KathmanduÕs Nomad Expeditions: "There'll be a lot more competition among the trekking companies for a lot less clients."

Just as surely as the Big E will still draw backpackers and alpinists, terror or no terror, adventure travel is poised to continue the steady 6 percent per annum growth the market has seen for the last three years. Only the destinations have changed, not the desire. Just ask Chad McFadden. Assuming he can recover his gear from Pakistan by January, he hopes to head off on a climbing trip to Patagonia that same month. To him, the moments of gripping anxiety, such as those he felt while ducking Taliban sympathizers in the northern regions of Pakistan, are the reason he went to the Hindu Kush mountains in the first place. "The trip to Pakistan was cheap, awe-some, and at other times terrifying," he says. "And that's adventure travel."

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