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Gallery—Charlie Munsey
12.01.2012
In the first two weeks of February 2002, seven of the world’s best and boldest paddlers completed the first descent of Tibet’s Upper Tsangpo Gorge.
Heavy Medal
12.01.2012
If you caught Vavinec Hradilek’s silver-medal performance at this summer’s Olympic Games, you witnessed one of the world’s most dynamic slalom paddlers lay down a near-perfect run. But you probably missed the 25-year-old Czech’s clever shout-outs to his steep-creeking buddies.
Thoughts from a legend
12.01.2012
Al Widing Sr. has finished the 120-mile AuSable River Canoe Marathon a record 33 times, including 16 consecutive finishes from age 63 to 79.
Oversea Debris
12.01.2012
On March 11, 2011, the Tohoku earthquake, centered off the coast of northern Japan, generated powerful tsunami waves that slammed into 400 miles of the Japanese shoreline…The waves washed more than 5 million tons of debris out to sea. In the fall of 2011, some of the estimated 1.5 million tons of remaining flotsam—everything from buoys and boats to entire shipping containers—began arriving on North America ’s west coast.
Testing Boundaries
08.01.2012
The Usumacinta has a reputation as one of the best river trips in the world, and also one of the most dangerous. It forms the border between Mexico and Guatemala through the heart of the Mayan region, a vast, densely jungled wilderness where traditional authorities hold little sway…because of these amazing features, the Usu became one of the world’s preeminent raft trips in the 1970s, and a prime winter playground for off-season Grand Canyon guides.
Testing Boundaries
08.01.2012
It took me two days to hitchhike from Haines, Alaska, to the Yukon highway bridge where Walt Blackadar started his fabled 1971 first descent of Turnback Canyon. I launched in a drizzle feeling quite puny, just as Walt probably did, which I guess was the point. I was alone, as he had been, with 10 days and 230 miles of the Alsek River ahead of me. Running Turnback was never part of my plan, though.
Testing Boundaries
08.01.2012
I always thought I needed to do something ‘legitimate’ for a living. Then when I graduated I got job offers in geology, and thought, ‘What do I need money for so badly that I’m ready to sacrifice my life for it?’
Gallery—Trey Cambern
08.01.2012
The inspiration to movie Deliverance which introduced a generation of adventure-seekers to the possibilities of river-running.
Dirtbag Diaries—Amazon Solo
08.01.2012
Kayaking is an inexpensive way to travel. So I bought a continental map of South America and could see that it was possible to connect the rivers from Venezuela in the north all the way to Argentina.
Gallery—Zbigniew Bzdak
08.01.2012
Robin Moore and Todd Gulick during the fifth Canoandes expedition to the Colca River Canyon in 1991.
Testing Boundaries
08.01.2012
Rivers carve deep canyons and divide hostile neighbors. They cut pathways through lawless country, and beckon us to follow. It’s no wonder that river-runners have their own canon of unspoken boundaries that, from time to time, they feel compelled to cross.
Voices
06.22.2012
The North Fork Championship went off in a big way earlier this month. In the last 12 days, the media has been spewing into the web-o-sphere, with stylized video from Skip Armstrong and fantastic images from A-list photographers like Mike Leeds. And so it should. A gigantic rapid (Jacob’s Ladder) and easy spectator viewing made [...]
‘Fearless’
04.05.2012
A book review of ‘Fearless,’ C&K contributing editor Joe Glickman’s new adventure travel tale on Freya Hoffmeister, which dissects the life and times of the German expedition sea kayaker who circumnavigated Australia in late 2009 and is in the midst of an attempt to paddle around South America.
Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff
04.05.2012
Can I sweat out toxins with exercise? What’s the best wood for making a paddle? And what’s on Eddy’s bucket list.
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