Alsek River Shoot

We are back from an amazing summer of photo shoots and adventures.  Jen and I spent nearly two weeks of June on one of the most remote rivers in North America.  We spent twelve days shooting and writing for Yukon Tourism on the Alsek river. 

The Alsek river flows through one of the worlds most glaciated watersheds, and drains the largest non-polar ice cap in the world.  Needless to say we were excited when the trip plans were set in stone and we flew out to Whitehorse to meet the crew.

After a couple days in White Horse helping buy food and load supplies, we headed for the put in at Haines Junction.   We spent the next twelve days negotiating rafts through the wilds of the Yukon, British Columbia, and South East Alaska.  Along with the typical challenges of keeping rafts upright in big water rapids, we also had to make our way through the maze of ice bergs in Lowell Lake and Alsek Lake. 

It was the unique images that I imagined creating as the river passes through two glacial lakes full of ice bergs that originally drew me to the Alsek.

Once the proposed site of a massive copper mine during the early 1990's, the Alsek was listed as one the most threatened rivers in the world.  For many years it was one of the biggest and most well known fights against resource extraction in all of North America, with the Canadian prime minister and Al Gore both running the river to bring attention to the issue.
Thankfully the years of attention and hard work payed off in the creation of a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the world's largest bio-preserve. 

Due to its remoteness the Alsek river sees fewer than 150 people a year, and requires a helicopter portage past the unraftable Turn Back Canyon, and chartered flight at the take out.

After spending nearly two weeks without seeing any sign of other humans, we loaded our boats the last morning in a thick marine fog and made our way to the take out and chartered plane in Dry Bay which is part of Glacier Bay National Park. 

After a trip like the Alsek it is no wonder its a little depressing being back in the office answering emails and sending out photos, but its the office work that allows us such amazing adventures that are "work".  Check back again to find out about the magazine story and slide shows I will be doing from the trip this next year.