NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC:

​Wild, fierce, and unforgettable, the Tsangpo River plunges headlong from lofty Tibet to the Indian Plains 9,000 feet below, slashing its way through the deepest canyon on Earth. Shrouded in mystery since Western explorers first reached the region a century and a half ago, this magnificent series of Himalayan gorges has been called the Everest of the whitewater world; but, unlike Everest, the Tsangpo has yet to be completely explored and charted. It remains one of modern exploration’s greatest challenges, as daunting – and as dangerous – as any on the planet, and the first team to descend it will join the likes of Edmund Hillary, John Wesley Powell, and Francis Chichester in the pantheon of modern adventurers.
​If anyone could accomplish the feat, Wickliffe Walker and his friends were the men. World-class paddlers all, they had pioneered expedition kayaking in the Himalaya in the early ‘80s, but the Tsangpo eluded their grasp. For years they talked of returning, but not until 1998 did the dream become a reality and serious planning begin. Their ambitious project, as complex as any assault on Everest or K2, would combine trailblazing exploration, whitewater adventure, and sudden tragedy played out against the breathtaking backdrop of the Roof of the World.

​This engrossing book guides us into long-forbidden Tibet and down a sacred torrent whose cataracts and vertiginous cliffs have never been mastered by man. For much of their trek, the team traveled just like their legendary predecessors, the explorers, surveyors and spies who roamed the region in the 19th century, leading their column of porters into a region so remote that only five years ago cartographers still believed it might hide a waterfall twice as tall as Niagara. At the same time, this is a detailed account of “alpine style" kayaking at its outer extreme, where high-tech equipment like satellite phones, digital video, and state-of-the-art paddling gear become irrelevant at the moment of truth – when a man in a boat pits his strength and experience against a river’s inexorable, merciless power.