Partnerships :: Rivers in Demand
On March 7, 2008, six paddlers met in China to begin the second phase of a three-part exploratory kayaking project called Rivers in Demand. This two-month expedition included a 10-day self-supported first descent of the Class V Upper Salween River – the last unexplored section of the last free flowing river draining the Tibetan Plateau. The crew will also completed the last descent of The Great Bend of the Yangtze River, a section of whitewater that will be flooded this spring when the last dam in its system is completed.
How Sierra Designs Helps:Sierra Designs is thrilled to partner with the Rivers in Demand team by donating Zagori bivies, Echo sleeping bags, Asp 2 , Velox 2 and Meteor Light Tents as well as our Drizone packable gloves to keep the team warm and dry as they paddle through these amazing bio-diversity hotspots. Sierra Designs is excited to assist in this remarkable and important environmental expedition. The Rivers in Demand adventure in China has been successfully completed and now the team looks forward to their next journey. |
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Sierra Designs in Action:(click image to enlarge) |
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| Updates from the Crew | |||
| April 30, 2008
It's been a phenomenal week of kayaking for our crew on southwest China's Salween River. Himalayan snowmelt left the Salween swollen and the rapids were the biggest and most exciting we've paddled during our two months in the Middle Kingdom. Yesterday, we tested our abilities and comfort levels on a 20-mile section of big class IV and V whitewater above the heinous Tiger Jumping Rock rapid. The final rapid we paddled was the hardest of the day and fed directly into this pile of boulders and holes. After a half an hour choosing a line, Trip jumped into his kayak, found his line and charged. It was nerve-wracking to watch knowing that if Trip missed his line he could have been shoved beneath a deadly sieve or suffered a beat down in one of the rapid's semi-truck sized holes. As it was, he styled it and inspired Adam Mills Elliot to follow suit. But aside from the world-class kayaking and scenery, the undetermined fate of the Salween was the allure for us to paddle the river. Currently, there is a proposal to construct a thirteen dam cascade along a few hundred miles of China's last free-flowing river. If completed, the dams will flood each of the rapids we paddled and end Travis Winn's hopes of building a rafting industry on the Salween. The series of proposed dams would create reservoirs in the World Heritage Site and national park that we paddled through and flood the homes of the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives and cultures are shaped around the waterway. Fortunately, approval to begin construction on these dams has yet to be given and there is still hope to find alternative ways to develop electrical capacity in southwest China (increased efficiency is one oft-heard suggestion). On the other hand, many of China's dam projects commence without approval. A few days before we left the Salween Valley, a Chinese television crew from the Phoenix Network met up with us to film an episode of their show, Jiang He Sui (loosely translated River River Water). The show focuses on the various threats to China's rivers, including hydropower development and pollution. It's incredibly controversial given the sensitivity of hydropower but, amazingly, it has received the endorsement of the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy. The show is available domestically in China in homes with satellite dishes and internationally in markets with large Chinese populations. I'll be back in Portland on Monday and will spend the week preping my speeches and presentations for my trip to the east coast. Our photographer is organizing sponsor photos as I type this, so we will be able to get you a complete collection of photos by July 1. The reason for setting this date so late is to ensure that mags have enough time to select the images that they want to use. If you need images before July 1 for tradeshow materials, catalogs, etc., please get in touch and we'll work it out. Attached is a teaser image. Thanks a lot for the tents, bags and bivys and look forward to chatting in person at the tradeshow this summer. Cheers! Andy Maser ____________________________ March 23, 2008 On March 23, the Epicocity Crew completed the first stage of their Rivers in Demand Project in China by documenting 200 miles of the Mekong River within the burgeoning conflict region of Tibet. The crew looks forward to moving past the political unrest and returning to their focus of raising awareness to the value of free-flowing rivers in southwestern China. On March 13, one day before riots began in Tibet's capital of Lhasa, the team of Travis Winn, Trip Jennings, Adam Elliott and Andy Maser were forced to changed course to the Mekong River after a police checkpoint in Tibet blockaded the crew from continuing to the originally planned put in of the Salween River. By the March 14, the crew had began paddling 200 miles of Class V whitewater while the long-held question of Tibetan sovereignty erupted in violent protest across Tibet and the surrounding provinces. The crew first learned of the conflict via satellite phone while in a river canyon lined by 20,000 foot peaks. The Chinese government had closed the region to both foreign and domestic travel. The team feared that discovery by authorities could result in detainment and confiscation of media produced from the expedition. After 140 miles of isolated whitewater, they reached their first possible take-out as a military convoy of 30 troop transports rolled past. The crew opted to continue downstream into another seventy miles of undocumented whitewater with a dwindling food supply. The whitewater was safer and more reliable than facing Chinese authorities within the conflict region. The new plan called to take-out at the relative safe-zone on the border of Tibet and Yunnan. After three more days of the hardest and most spectacular whitewater of the expedition, the crew reached the relative safety of the border. The paddling of the expedition was complete but the crew had to make it past the now restricted prefecture of Deqin, just outside the border of Tibet. On March 24, after passing military checkpoints, they arrived into safety in the city of Shangri La. They are now gearing up for the last descent of the Great Bend of the Yangtze in early April. Andy Maser ____________________________ |
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