The Last River: The Tragic Race for Shangri-la » (1 PBK ED)

TODD BALF, a former senior editor for Outside magazine, writes for Men's Journal, Fast Company, and other publications. His cover story in Men's Journal on the Tsangpo and the Walker-McEwan expedition appeared in March 1999. He lives in Beverly, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.

The Last River: The Tragic Race for Shangri-la is a breathtaking account of the ill-fated October 1998 expedition of an American whitewater kayaking team who traveled deep into the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet to run the Yarlung Tsangpo, known in paddling circles as the "Everest of rivers." For Wick Walker and Tom McEwan, extreme whitewater pioneers, best friends, and trip leaders, the Tsangpo adventure was the culmination of a twenty-five-year quest for glory. Yet the team's magnificent dreams crumbled when their ace paddler was swept over a thunderous eight-foot waterfall, never to be seen again.

Here is a fascinating exploration of both the seething big water and perilous terrain of the legendary Shangri-la, and the men who dared challenge the furious rapids that raced through this 140-mile-long canyon. The Last River invites us to view the Himalayas from a totally new perspective — on a historic river so remote that only the most hardy and romantic souls attempt to unlock its mysteries.

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In Kathmandu, where wilderness guides and suppliers do a booming business, one whitewater outfitter frankly denies "responsibility for the diminished career opportunities, and relationship problems that accompany the slow but undeviating downward spiral into the dark underworld of professional whitewater trash." It's a disconcerting bit of promotion, and one that the heroes of this book would understand. Their "whitewater addiction" led them to the Tsangpo River, considered by experts the Everest of whitewater challenges. The comparison is misleading in one respect: Everest's summit is now reached on a regular basis, and its ascent is mapped in great detail. The Tsangpo, which plunges ten thousand vertical feet in the course of one hundred and forty miles through the deepest gorge on the planet, has never been explored from source to confluence. Compounding its allure, the Tsangpo is believed to be the source of the legendary "Falls of the Brahmaputra," first cited in 1880 but not located since. In 1998 a team of four U.S. kayakers flew to Kathmandu to attempt a "first descent" and found an already-treacherous river swollen to levels barring navigation. Nevertheless, they pressed on. One month later, and less one team-member, the embattled group trudged out of "Shangri-La" to meet a chorus of criticism—had their brash confidence, determination and investment led them down a "slow but undeviating spiral" and cost a world-class athlete his life? Balf's riveting tale is a sophisticated fusion of adventure and sport history, and a celebration of human endeavor.
—Elizabeth Kiem