Trek Specialist & Trip Leader
2014 Outside Travel Awards and 2016 Condé Nast Travel Specialist Award winner, Vassi is one of our best-loved and most-experienced leaders. He has been traveling in Asia for more than 35 years and has been leading treks since 1986. For many years, he has represented GeoEx’s Tibet expertise on the Condé Nast Traveler Top Travel Specialists list and was named Best Cultural Guide by Outside magazine. Vassi also leads some of GeoEx’s journeys in Myanmar (Burma), Pakistan, and Malaysian Borneo.
In addition to his many trips to the roof of the world, he’s explored the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and mountains and cultures of all kinds. It has been said that Vassi is a mountain polymath and the one guy you’d pick to sip tea and swap tales in the mess tent with on a brilliantly cold alpine evening. Vassi holds a pilot’s license and his special interests include history, photography, oceanography, and aeronautics. On his many personal pilgrimages to Myanmar, he has fallen madly in love with the place and people—as you can see from the photos on Vassi’s photography website.
Vassi’s mountaineering portfolio includes classic and unique Himalayan treks, as well as some of the most challenging expeditions in Asia: Dolpo‑Shey Gompa in western Nepal, the Snow Lake and Baltoro Glacier treks in Pakistan, Trans-Himalaya in India, and the Kangshung Face of Everest trek in Tibet.
“Vassi is famed for his engaging personality; his mountaineering skills; his geographical, cultural, and historical knowledge; his sense of humor; and his ability to talk his group out of any difficulty with soldiers and border officials.” – Don George
