The Alsek is possibly the BEST class 3 whitewater run in north america, the river cuts through 15,000 foot peaks in two countries. This trip was supposed to be a family affair with my parents, brother and my girlfriend and her parents. Unfortunately Christen's mom broke her arm and jaw a month before the trip in a horrible bike wreck and Jim broke his ankle/foot 4 days before his flight. We all were bummed that Christen's parents and Jim wouldn't be coming but we had a solid group of 10. All that separated us from the river was a HUGE drive. I flew back to St. Louis 2 weeks before the trip to help my parents pack and drove 3 rafts+ gear back to durango solo=20 hours. Christen and I were able to take off work easier than the others (yeah nursing!) and drove 24 hours straight to Calgary, where my parents were waiting. Upon picking them up my mom declared to Christen " the drive will be easy now, the boys can do the rest", my dad and I drove for another 35 hours across Canada on slower than expected roads. My grand total time spent in truck was 85 hours (with 65 hours straight), when we made it to Whitehorse I needed a break and a molsen.
A long way
Views along the drive north, most of the time I was either driving or sleeping
Once in whitehorse we met up with the rest of the team and bought provisions for our two week trip down the alsek, we then headed to the put-in at haines junction. We loaded rafts and headed to haines AK to deal with customs. Everyone else wanted as much weight in their raft as possible so Christen and I had a light load in our 14 ft 1983 avon adventure bucket boat, I figured if we really needed weight wee could just fill the boat with water.
Our putin on the Dezadeash river
Looking back at the flatwater to begin the trip
It was flat but breath taking
Our first nights camp at serpentine creek
Beautiful flowers
Confluence of the Dezadeash and Kaskawulsh
My pops cooking some bear bait
Our first few days were great, with amazingly warm temps and little darkness. On our 3rd day it got COLD and windy.
Camp 2 cold, rainy and windy
Christen making dinner that night
My mentor in paddling, slim. Always having fun and a smile on his face
On Day 4 we encountered our 1st whitewater in the few km above lowell lake. There were some really fun waves to catch and some big holes to avoid but overall just fun class 3. It felt great to be back in my boat after taking a month off to recover from an upper back injury from the kings/upper cherry hike.
Getting ice for cocktails
My lovely lady taking in the ice wonderland
Our furry friends
We did a layover at lowell lake and hiked up goatherd mountain to get an amazing views of glacier and 15,000 foot peaks.
Christen, my mom, and I on the accent
Camp looking up at goatherd
Camp looking out on lowell lake
My dad on our lunch stop
amazing
This encompasses having a great time with my dad and one of the reasons that I go on these trips
Steve Sandborne on lowell lake
Leaving the lake we paddled the biggest rapids of the trip (excluding turnback) with lava north being the highlight, but mostly just continuous class 3.
Wanted to see more of these guys
Approaching turnback and our heli portage
Lots of unloading and re rigging
Turnback at 50k or so=way too high
These cool puffballs were everywhere
We had a great few days after the portage down to the confluence of the Tatshenshini
Beautiful camp at walker glacier, we did a layover here as well
My dad and I on the glacier
Group shot
Bocce ball
We headed down to alsek lake the following day and the weather turned for the first time in a week and we got much colder temps, wind and rain
Fresh tracks
Alsek lake
Gutting salmon at our takeout at drybay
Our shuttle
Coast range
This was one of the most memorable trips I have ever taken, I cannot wait to come back and run turnback at more reasonable flows. If you ever get the chance to go, do yourself a favor and go for it.
-Tom
