Nicole Smoot is a travel adventurer, blogger, and photographer born and raised in the mountains of Alaska. She has a love of bad taxidermy, post soviet bunkers, spelunking, and homemade wine. Nicole is a weathered traveler having survived a bear attack, a glacial ice cave collapse, and also once utilized a 24-hour ceasefire to traverse Northern Afghanistan while running a tour. She was the first foreign woman to summit 5100 meter Shah Foladi Mountain in Afghanistan. As an explorer, she has discovered and cataloged previously unknown cave drawings, petroglyphs, and glacial cave location data for academics across the globe.   

In her years of travel, she has developed a proprietary network of contacts across Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. She has consulted for various Ministries of Tourism and NGOs on tourism development projects. 

Despite the challenges, Nicole gravitates to regions often overlooked due to geopolitical strife and lack of tourism infrastructure. Tucked away in these remote places are breathtaking experiences that remain unravaged by a global footprint, like the dragon blood trees of Socotra, the dazzling turquoise lakes of Tajikistan, and the extensive rarely explored cave systems of Lebanon. 

Her photography can be seen in National Geographic, Alaska Airlines Magazine, Lonely Planet, Bradt Travel Guides, and on her site AdventuresofNicole.com. She has collaborated as an off-the-beaten-path tour guide and consultant for several companies before branching out solo.