Readers' Choice Adventurers of the Year: And the Winner Is...

Last November we introduced you to the 2009 Adventurers of the Year, recognized for their extraordinary achievements in exploration, conservation, actions sports, and humanitarian work. Their accomplishments ranged from the longest BASE jump ever to educating 10,000 women and girls in war-torn Afghanistan to rocketing 350 miles above the Earth to save a telescope. Then, for our first ever Readers’ Choice Adventurer of the Year Award, we asked you to vote for the person you felt best embodied the spirit of adventure. (See the entire Best of Adventure feature here.)

Today, with nearly 20,000 votes cast, we are thrilled to announce a tie. Both winners are equally impressive, but in entirely different ways. Explorer-engineer Albert Yu-Min Lin organized a high-risk expedition into Mongolia’s “Forbidden Zone” to search for the lost tomb of Genghis Khan using state-of-the-art mapping technology. Wounded Iraq war veteran Marc Hoffmeister led a team of soldiers, many missing limbs, up the dangerous West Buttress route on Denali. When we delivered the news to each winner, both assured us of one thing: They could not have done it alone—and their adventures continue.

Where Next: Iraq and AfghanistanTouring Mess-o-potamia

When Geoff Hann led the first tourists back into Iraq last March, people thought he was nuts. Until, that is, the trip became a headline-grabbing hit and Hann booked sold-out return excursions to Iraq—and Afghanistan—departing in October (hinterlandtravel.com). Could the British guide be onto something? 

—Brendan Spiegel

ADVENTURE: Let’s start with the obvious: Why guide trips in Iraq and not, say, sunny Costa Rica?

Geoff Hann: Thirty years ago, before Saddam was in power, I did a London-to-Kathmandu overland and fell in love with the region. There are thousands of archaeological sites left behind by the likes of Alexander the Great. This is where our civilization began. I’ve led tours here ever since.

A: What makes you think these places are safe? There’s still near-daily violence in both Iraq and Afghanistan. 

GH: If you listened to the media all the time, you’d never go anywhere. If anything happens to us in Iraq or Afghanistan it will be quite by chance, just as it would be anywhere else.