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The Last River: The Tragic Race for Shangri-la
The Last 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.
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.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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336 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
May 19, 2014
These kind of wilderness/extreme sport survival tales of death and striving slightly baffle me. I dip my toe into the genre every once in a while, as one pops up on one of my lists, but I have to confess that I don't get the urge throw yourself into harm's way again and again. I'm not one to advocate for comfort and no challenge in life, but I'm pretty sure I don't need that kind of challenge. Isn't life hard enough already?
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the recent changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the recent changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
April 28, 2018
I generally love books about exploratory expeditions, but this book didn't speak to me. I'm not sure how Balf did it, but he took a riveting story and made it dry and boring. It wasn't particularly long, but it felt interminable at times.
It seemed to me that this book was written for white water paddlers, and not for the general public. I got lost in the minutia of the sport, unfamiliar with the gear, tactics, etc. It was interesting to read, though I don't feel I connected with any of the characters or learned anything in particular.
It seemed to me that this book was written for white water paddlers, and not for the general public. I got lost in the minutia of the sport, unfamiliar with the gear, tactics, etc. It was interesting to read, though I don't feel I connected with any of the characters or learned anything in particular.
April 25, 2021
A mixed book - part beautifully done, part not so much.
The first part - the background on the expedition members - was slow and dry, and, to my mind, too long. The second part - the account of the expedition and the ultimate tragedy were fascinating, at times poetic, and offered deep analysis without taking simplistic sides on a complex issue.
In short four white-water paddlers set out to paddle the world’s deepest, and largely unmapped gorge: The Tsangpo Gorge and River in Tibet. They hoped to be the first to pass through the deepest and section of the gorge. The gorge is 240 km long and up to 6km deep in parts.
The analogies to climbing Everest and to the disastrous 1996 Everest season are made plain by author, Todd Balf.
“Surviving days on end in big, pulsing whitewater, at the bottom of a bottomless canyon, was analogous to life at altitude, some said - each its own Death Zone. Whitewater was, however, far less subtle in the end. Life didn’t slip from one’s body, as ... on big Himalayan slopes ... On a big river, life was snatched away with incomprehensible violence.”
The tragic ending on this trip was that kayaker Douglas Gordon was killed in the river while attempting to navigate a rapid. After searching unsuccessfully for Gordon, it took his three teammates a week to climb out of the remote gorge and reach the nearest road.
Balf reviews the risks and possible factors behind this tragedy and other river tragedies in a balanced, even-handed way.
The Tsangpo expedition timing was unfortunate, the river was in raging flood making the paddling even more difficult than it would otherwise have been. Other expert paddlers advised waiting or backing out. The team modified its approach. They paddled those parts they believed were manageable, and hiked around rapids that were too dangerous. The hikes involved backbreaking climbs up and down cliffs with boats and heavy gear, thrashing through dense bush, rappelling back down off cliffs and sometimes having to backtrack before they could find routes up and around obstacles on the canyon floor.
Balf notes:
“What worries a trip leader most on extreme rivers ... is ... a moment when normal good sense doesn’t prevail, when a rogue adrenalin overrides all the usual impulses not to do something ... There are a thousand things that can mess with a man’s judgement, that can turn an honest appraisal into a dishonest one. A day of expert whitewater paddling calls for a level of conscious and continuous risk analysis that few sports require ... If external or internal distractions intrude into the assessment process, then the whole game is poisoned. It’s for this reason that expedition kayakers, who rely on the adrenaline surges ... also fear them.”
He also quotes an experienced paddler who commented on the expedition: “ ... taking a boat into the narrows is just the wrong equipment to address the terrain. It’s like trying to hammer a nail with a saw.”
He also worries about the sponsor’s approach to the expedition.
“... what was evident was the markedly different relationship that organizations like National Geographic now had with the parties who did dangerous work for them ... Longtime (past) president Gilbert Grosvenor would fret over each explorer’s trip as if he or she were a son or daughter ....”
“After river runner Arlene Burns did ... work for the action drama, River Wild, it struck her that the filmmakers didn’t much care whether she lived or die as long as they got their shot ...”
“Geographic certainly wasn’t guilty of that level of callousness, but the organization’s extreme entrepreneurial makeover (including significant layoffs, a rapidly expanded for-profit division ..) seemed to embrace the very thing the old institution was famously know for resisting ... ”
I had a hard time getting through the slow opening section of the book, and a hard time putting down the second section.
The first part - the background on the expedition members - was slow and dry, and, to my mind, too long. The second part - the account of the expedition and the ultimate tragedy were fascinating, at times poetic, and offered deep analysis without taking simplistic sides on a complex issue.
In short four white-water paddlers set out to paddle the world’s deepest, and largely unmapped gorge: The Tsangpo Gorge and River in Tibet. They hoped to be the first to pass through the deepest and section of the gorge. The gorge is 240 km long and up to 6km deep in parts.
The analogies to climbing Everest and to the disastrous 1996 Everest season are made plain by author, Todd Balf.
“Surviving days on end in big, pulsing whitewater, at the bottom of a bottomless canyon, was analogous to life at altitude, some said - each its own Death Zone. Whitewater was, however, far less subtle in the end. Life didn’t slip from one’s body, as ... on big Himalayan slopes ... On a big river, life was snatched away with incomprehensible violence.”
The tragic ending on this trip was that kayaker Douglas Gordon was killed in the river while attempting to navigate a rapid. After searching unsuccessfully for Gordon, it took his three teammates a week to climb out of the remote gorge and reach the nearest road.
Balf reviews the risks and possible factors behind this tragedy and other river tragedies in a balanced, even-handed way.
The Tsangpo expedition timing was unfortunate, the river was in raging flood making the paddling even more difficult than it would otherwise have been. Other expert paddlers advised waiting or backing out. The team modified its approach. They paddled those parts they believed were manageable, and hiked around rapids that were too dangerous. The hikes involved backbreaking climbs up and down cliffs with boats and heavy gear, thrashing through dense bush, rappelling back down off cliffs and sometimes having to backtrack before they could find routes up and around obstacles on the canyon floor.
Balf notes:
“What worries a trip leader most on extreme rivers ... is ... a moment when normal good sense doesn’t prevail, when a rogue adrenalin overrides all the usual impulses not to do something ... There are a thousand things that can mess with a man’s judgement, that can turn an honest appraisal into a dishonest one. A day of expert whitewater paddling calls for a level of conscious and continuous risk analysis that few sports require ... If external or internal distractions intrude into the assessment process, then the whole game is poisoned. It’s for this reason that expedition kayakers, who rely on the adrenaline surges ... also fear them.”
He also quotes an experienced paddler who commented on the expedition: “ ... taking a boat into the narrows is just the wrong equipment to address the terrain. It’s like trying to hammer a nail with a saw.”
He also worries about the sponsor’s approach to the expedition.
“... what was evident was the markedly different relationship that organizations like National Geographic now had with the parties who did dangerous work for them ... Longtime (past) president Gilbert Grosvenor would fret over each explorer’s trip as if he or she were a son or daughter ....”
“After river runner Arlene Burns did ... work for the action drama, River Wild, it struck her that the filmmakers didn’t much care whether she lived or die as long as they got their shot ...”
“Geographic certainly wasn’t guilty of that level of callousness, but the organization’s extreme entrepreneurial makeover (including significant layoffs, a rapidly expanded for-profit division ..) seemed to embrace the very thing the old institution was famously know for resisting ... ”
I had a hard time getting through the slow opening section of the book, and a hard time putting down the second section.
January 21, 2018
Tragedy and death on the ‘Everest of Rivers.’
Before the turn of the millennium, Tibet’s Yarlung Tsangpo river was one of planet Earth’s last great unexplored places. The river, some 1,800 miles long, snakes through the deepest canyon in the world – a chasm three times deeper than that of the American Grand Canyon – it’s roaring ribbon of white water unnavigated by modern explorers. Todd Balf’s The Last River traces a 1988 American kayaking expedition that sought to be the first to traverse the Tsangpo’s unexplored regions – an expedition that ultimately ended in tragedy.
I’m generally a fan of the ‘outdoor-adventure’ genre and Balf offers a thorough account of the preparation and deployment of the Walker-McEwan expedition to the river. The strongest point of the book comes, obviously, as the four kayakers began their descent of the river – which is running remarkably higher than expected – and Balf paints a vivid picture of the challenges and dangerous conditions among the mountains, deep gorges, rocks, and rapids. Balf also has an unprecedented amount of access to those connected to the expedition and there’s plenty of first-hand observations to back-up the overall narrative.
Balf’s connection to the surviving participants may also be a bit of the book’s undoing. The perspective is clearly sympathetic to kayakers and the narrative is heavy on the life stories of the key personalities, almost to the point of verging on an outright memorialization. Not to disparage the dead, but the heaviness of the expedition members’ personal backgrounds tended to pull the main thrust of the story – the exploration of the canyon – a bit off-track for me. There’s also the subtext of the somewhat sleazy commercialism of outdoor adventurism that slides toward a rant by the last chapters, and I’d lean more toward Michael Kodas’s High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed as a more compelling exploration the dark side of ‘exploration’ sponsorship.
Verdict: Good, but not top-of-the-genre. The subject matter is there, but this one was a bit too heavy on the personal lives of the participants, diluting the core material on the exploration of the river.
P.S. The upper gorge of the Yarlung Tsangpo river resisted exploration for another 14 years. It wasn’t until 2002 that a group of seven people -- led by filmmaker Scott Lindgren and assisted by a 93-person support team – became the first party to successfully kayak the upper gorge of the Yarlung Tsangpo.
Before the turn of the millennium, Tibet’s Yarlung Tsangpo river was one of planet Earth’s last great unexplored places. The river, some 1,800 miles long, snakes through the deepest canyon in the world – a chasm three times deeper than that of the American Grand Canyon – it’s roaring ribbon of white water unnavigated by modern explorers. Todd Balf’s The Last River traces a 1988 American kayaking expedition that sought to be the first to traverse the Tsangpo’s unexplored regions – an expedition that ultimately ended in tragedy.
I’m generally a fan of the ‘outdoor-adventure’ genre and Balf offers a thorough account of the preparation and deployment of the Walker-McEwan expedition to the river. The strongest point of the book comes, obviously, as the four kayakers began their descent of the river – which is running remarkably higher than expected – and Balf paints a vivid picture of the challenges and dangerous conditions among the mountains, deep gorges, rocks, and rapids. Balf also has an unprecedented amount of access to those connected to the expedition and there’s plenty of first-hand observations to back-up the overall narrative.
Balf’s connection to the surviving participants may also be a bit of the book’s undoing. The perspective is clearly sympathetic to kayakers and the narrative is heavy on the life stories of the key personalities, almost to the point of verging on an outright memorialization. Not to disparage the dead, but the heaviness of the expedition members’ personal backgrounds tended to pull the main thrust of the story – the exploration of the canyon – a bit off-track for me. There’s also the subtext of the somewhat sleazy commercialism of outdoor adventurism that slides toward a rant by the last chapters, and I’d lean more toward Michael Kodas’s High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed as a more compelling exploration the dark side of ‘exploration’ sponsorship.
Verdict: Good, but not top-of-the-genre. The subject matter is there, but this one was a bit too heavy on the personal lives of the participants, diluting the core material on the exploration of the river.
P.S. The upper gorge of the Yarlung Tsangpo river resisted exploration for another 14 years. It wasn’t until 2002 that a group of seven people -- led by filmmaker Scott Lindgren and assisted by a 93-person support team – became the first party to successfully kayak the upper gorge of the Yarlung Tsangpo.
December 17, 2023
I won't ever understand what drives a man to leave his work, his home, his family and try to conquer a raging river in the Himalaya. It's beyond me.
April 16, 2023
Great book about the kayak expedition down the Tsangpo River in Tibet.
January 12, 2010
I honestly thought this book would completely grip me and keep me reading until all hours of the night, but it was a little dry or sterile. The author's "voice" never really surfaced, but I can only assume he was trying to avoid judgment of the controversial attempt at a first descent on the Tsangpo. In turn, a really gripping story was kinda muted. I have read whitewater stories that made me feel like I was right out there on the water...holding my breath during swims, struggling to make my move, and enjoying the sunshine on my soggy soul. But this one didn't quite get me there.
Another jab...the book's chronological format meant that the author described each party member and then discussed the exploration. I found myself wanting to go back to the early chapters so I could keep the characters straight in my mind. I was surprised the author didn't choose to weave personality portraits within the accounts of the river trip.
I did enjoy learning about the region of the Tsangpo and the huge task of exploring these uncharted territories in modern times. From product sponsors to National Geographic, it's a big business...sometimes scarier than the water and rocks. It's always good to read about boaters and the universal joys and sorrows they face. Balancing the call of the water with a rational mind was a huge focus for some of these kayakers, but it ultimately didn't save a life. The book brings up some great topics, but fails to completely deliver.
Another jab...the book's chronological format meant that the author described each party member and then discussed the exploration. I found myself wanting to go back to the early chapters so I could keep the characters straight in my mind. I was surprised the author didn't choose to weave personality portraits within the accounts of the river trip.
I did enjoy learning about the region of the Tsangpo and the huge task of exploring these uncharted territories in modern times. From product sponsors to National Geographic, it's a big business...sometimes scarier than the water and rocks. It's always good to read about boaters and the universal joys and sorrows they face. Balancing the call of the water with a rational mind was a huge focus for some of these kayakers, but it ultimately didn't save a life. The book brings up some great topics, but fails to completely deliver.
August 12, 2018
The reason why I gave it a 1 star is because it should have been an article. All the background, all the commentary ruined the telling of the story. The commentary and the background info was forced into the story to make it book length but all that took away from the power of the story. I used to white water kayak, it is a dangerous sport, even the best of the best can die in a totally fluke situation. Bottom line - if you have a story to tell, tell it, if it is a good story, people will read it. If you have to embellish or add lots of commentary to increase the length then it probably isn’t worth telling or you aren’t the one that should tell it.
September 9, 2020
Even handed account, not too technical for a non whitewater paddler reader. Technical enough for those familiar with the sport. I would have like more detailed maps. I think some of the drama I expected was missing, but then I thought that meant the author was being more honest and authentic. Unlike the Nat Geo video “re enactment “ using some actual video and some re created, which I found in poor taste and exploitive.
March 9, 2018
I liked the authors later books. This was his first, and not very riveting. Possibly a hard book to write given the limitations the author had to work with. Cannot recommend.
July 29, 2018
Interesting story. So-so writing.
September 30, 2023
Taken from the Goodreads book page write up.
"The Last 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."
This is my type of book because I like adventure, travel, survival books. This book falls short on several levels so must give it one-star book.
It feels like it has been written by several people. Parts pull you in, other parts have way too many details, other parts of the story get lost and then once and awhile the look at me because I am so fit and wonderful steps in. The story is in there, it just gets lost, and this made me lose interest.
"The Last 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."
This is my type of book because I like adventure, travel, survival books. This book falls short on several levels so must give it one-star book.
It feels like it has been written by several people. Parts pull you in, other parts have way too many details, other parts of the story get lost and then once and awhile the look at me because I am so fit and wonderful steps in. The story is in there, it just gets lost, and this made me lose interest.
June 27, 2023
Read 3 river adventure books this week and feel my thoughts about them are best contextualized in relationship to eachother.
4 Stars.
The Lost River by Richard Bangs: he is the one who thunk it, did it and wrote about it making his book the best of the three capturing the out of the box thinking, insane logistics and spirit of adventure.
3 Stars.
Shooting the Boh by Tracy Johnston: a journalist on the river trip in exchange for promoting it really captures the feeling of a trip that doesn't go as planned. Solid, worthwhile.
2 Stars.
The Last River by Todd Balf: a sincere attempt by an author to get into the reasons why individuals lay it out there on adventures. The problem is, that is pretty much the whole book, as the adventure barely starts before it is over and is written by someone who wasn't there.
4 Stars.
The Lost River by Richard Bangs: he is the one who thunk it, did it and wrote about it making his book the best of the three capturing the out of the box thinking, insane logistics and spirit of adventure.
3 Stars.
Shooting the Boh by Tracy Johnston: a journalist on the river trip in exchange for promoting it really captures the feeling of a trip that doesn't go as planned. Solid, worthwhile.
2 Stars.
The Last River by Todd Balf: a sincere attempt by an author to get into the reasons why individuals lay it out there on adventures. The problem is, that is pretty much the whole book, as the adventure barely starts before it is over and is written by someone who wasn't there.
April 6, 2024
I found this book on a list of books worth reading published some years ago. This kayaking adventure in Tibet occurred more than twenty-five years ago, but it is still compelling reading. Since I live in California there are frequent opportunities to do rafting and kayaking trips in the ocean and on the rivers and in my youth I did a few of the popular rivers. In my old age I did a raft trip down the Colorado River and loved the wilderness experience. And I have been trekking and hiking in Nepal. All the more reason to read about the real adventurers who go into the wild places of the world and do amazing things that we tourists could never do. The author has gone deep into the lives of the four paddlers on this doomed expedition and brought a very well written description of adventure on a big river.
August 29, 2025
L'opera in sè è "regolare amministrazione". Ciò che descrive invece è veramente sensazionale: l'essenza dell'avventura. Un luogo davvero UNICO.
Aggiungerei un appunto: può un libro (ma in questo caso direi piuttosto può un luogo considerato che "Dietro le cascate" mi ha donato lo stesso effetto) tenerti per ore davanti ad un atlante con lo sguardo sognante come quello di un bambino di fronte al suo primo libro che illustra la vita degli animali? Un luogo magico, colossale. la curva di questo fiume orienta persino le altissime catene montuose himalayane, si vede dalla luna. se si dà un'occhiata all'atlante si vede subito quella gigantesca curva; persino la disposizione delle nazioni che la circondano ne è coinvolta. E pensare di passarci in mezzo? Terrificantemente avventuroso. 7
Aggiungerei un appunto: può un libro (ma in questo caso direi piuttosto può un luogo considerato che "Dietro le cascate" mi ha donato lo stesso effetto) tenerti per ore davanti ad un atlante con lo sguardo sognante come quello di un bambino di fronte al suo primo libro che illustra la vita degli animali? Un luogo magico, colossale. la curva di questo fiume orienta persino le altissime catene montuose himalayane, si vede dalla luna. se si dà un'occhiata all'atlante si vede subito quella gigantesca curva; persino la disposizione delle nazioni che la circondano ne è coinvolta. E pensare di passarci in mezzo? Terrificantemente avventuroso. 7
December 3, 2022
Just finished "The Last River" by Todd Balf.
If you are a fan of true story modern day explorations (think John Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" or "Into The Wild"), you will likely enjoy Todd Balf's narrative of the ill-fated 1998 expedition on the Tsangpo River in Tibet, one of the world's last unexplored regions.
The author does a great job of introducing the mystique of the region and the mythical history of the challenging gorge. He introduces the sport of extreme whitewater kayaking and those who risk their lives to challenge nature. He interweaves the who, what, where and psychological why in a journalistic tale of adventure and tragedy.
If you are a fan of true story modern day explorations (think John Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" or "Into The Wild"), you will likely enjoy Todd Balf's narrative of the ill-fated 1998 expedition on the Tsangpo River in Tibet, one of the world's last unexplored regions.
The author does a great job of introducing the mystique of the region and the mythical history of the challenging gorge. He introduces the sport of extreme whitewater kayaking and those who risk their lives to challenge nature. He interweaves the who, what, where and psychological why in a journalistic tale of adventure and tragedy.
May 7, 2019
This is a riveting and tragic story of an expedition into the Tsango Gorge in Tibet. The Tsango is a monster of a river that is isolated and unforgiving - hard to imagine what it is like without actually being there but the author gives a very compelling description. The books also goes into great detail as to how/why this perhaps ill-advised expedition was undertaken in the first place. If you like reading about Everest climbing expeditions and the like, you'll like this river version of such accounts.
June 21, 2022
As an avid whitewater kayaker, I might be a little biased but I thought this book was fantastic. Very well written and the author does a great job painting a picture of the landscape where the story takes place. I am a big lover of character building and I really like the way he rounds out the people. If you're not a whitewater kayaker don't worry, the boater vernacular is well explained and won't leave you feeling left out. Some of my favorite books are John Krakauer's Into Thin Air and Into The Wild and if you like them, you'll love this book.
October 11, 2018
Very interesting insight to the mindset and skill level of leading edge athletes. In this case, kayakers down the "Everest" of rivers, the Yarlung Tsangpo through the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet. Wick Walker, Tom and Jamie McEwan, Doug Gordon (dies) & Roger Zobel. Trip in 1998. Much maligned as being too extreme, the book makes a solid argument for these guys taking calculated risks and knowing what they were doing.
November 28, 2017
Great book involving whitewater kayaking - which is why I read it. It does a decent job of using correct terminology that kayakers actually do use. Running rivers like this has become even more prevalent in recent years with the advances in technology and transportation. There's more I want to say but I'll avoid spoilers! A good adventure story that's definitely worth a read, even if you're not a kayaker!
May 1, 2021
This book wanted to be "Into Thin Air," but didn't quite get there. Another exploration of a real-life adventure expedition that ended in tragedy, but much drier. Very jargon-y; seemed aimed at participants in white-water rafting rather than average readers. I was really looking forward to it because Into Thin Air was SO compelling and readable and I thought this would be the same...but I was left ultimately thinking this might have been better as an article.
October 28, 2024
oh my heavens I loved this book so much. It was so sad to read about Doug especially because I grew really attached to him throughout the book. But this was definitely a fascinating read that had me captivated till the very end! I would totally recommend this book to anyone that loves reading about an adventure and I loved how it mainly focused about the kayaking part than anything else:)
January 4, 2026
I'm a sucker for true-life adventure stories, such as Into Thin Air, The Endurance, and The Perfect Storm, so I tucked into this with account with high hopes. It is well-researched and full of detail. Unfortunately, the storytelling is disjointed and the narrative rarely stirs the sort of excitement found in similar works. I skimmed pages to finish this, a rarity for me.
July 14, 2017
A must read for any paddler or outdoor adventurer. There's a bias that comes through that I'm told has been characterized as unfair by at least one of the subjects, but the uniqueness of the trip, tragedy, and fluidity of the writing make this well worth the read.
May 18, 2018
All in all I'm glad I got to go on this adventure through this story. The book certainly made me want to go out (on a much safer) adventure of my own. I would've liked more detail on how the portages actually worked. It remains very difficult for me to picture.
August 18, 2019
I’ve spent a lot of time in canoes on expeditions. This book made me cringe at just about every page as the characters paddles toward their eventual fate. Well written, but made me deeply uncomfortable.
January 26, 2023
I knew the story prior to reading and it isn’t the best reflection of the whitewater paddling community in my opinion. I liked the descriptive aspects of the magnitude of the expedition. I dragged this book out but I think the rating is accurate
August 2, 2017
the title has the word "tragic" in it, so not sure why the ending caught me so off guard.
December 20, 2019
Letto in italiano ("Il fiume estremo"). Avvincente. Un libro sull'uomo e sui pericoli dello sport estremo
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