Salary
Average Salary: $38,260
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $1,597,278
The 3,000 or so professional "travel guides" accounted for by the Bureau of Labor Statistics average around $38,000 (source). Since their definition includes the words planning and travel and expedition, it's safe to say this is where you'll find your salary as an adventure leader.
Now, you may be asking, "Why doesn't the reward match the risk involved?" First, stop talking to your computer screen (especially if you're in a library). Second, for a couple of reasons, actually. The first is the type and amount of work you do.
If you're planning on taking a group of four rich and adventurous twenty-somethings through Inner Mongolia, you're going to get a pretty penny for it, but you'll plan it for months (don't forget the Tuvan throat singing) and will likely need to take some time to charge your batteries afterwards.
Meanwhile, if you're taking groups out on a weekend base-jumping excursion twenty miles outside of town, you can do it a lot more often...but you're going to be paid a lot less. It'll be up to you to decide when you're going big, and when you're going (to stay closer to) home.
The other major factor in figuring out whether you're a professional group leader or a smelly weirdo with a backpack is your level of experience. Believe it or not, no one wants to travel into dark, un-cell-phoneable areas of this or any other country with someone whose breadth of experience includes three summers at camp and nothing else. When you start out, you'll work on shorter weekend outings and co-lead rather than take full responsibility (source).
As your experience grows, you'll find bigger and better cash opportunities. By the time you've got a few dozen week-long solo excursions under your belt, the amount of money you make should be significantly better. Is $60,000 enough to get paid to travel around the world and never have to see the inside of an office? You tell us.