# Tatenshini Alsek 2017



## buckmanriver (Apr 2, 2008)

Bwest,

I just read the AW page for the run and browsed through the links. I would be interested in hearing about a recent trip report as well. 


American Whitewater - 2. Dalton Post to Alsek (Dry Bay), Tatshenshini British Columbia, CA/Yukon Territory, CA/Alaska, US

While I have not done this section of river I did spend time working in a village on the Kuskokwim river way out in bush Alaska. The wilderness / travel logistics look similar from the parks website. My big take away's for accessing these areas. 

1. Flying is typically the most feasible all around option for access. Bush planes will haul your gear but it is incredibly expensive. Flying yourself and a single raft into and out of the area would likely cost $3k - 6k round trip from Colorado. 

2. Seeing these places may be easier in the winter. In the winter you can drive a snow machine on the frozen river systems. They connect the villages like a natural road system. They way to see this area would be to fly to Whitehorse buy a Snowmachine and drive it to Dry Bay sell it and fly home. The bears are also sleeping at this time of year.


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## rivers2run (Jun 7, 2012)

I have done this trip the permit took about 3 years to be available. It was an amazing adventure. The first day has some class 3/4 rapids. The river moves fast but much of it is flat, reading the braids can be a challenge. We went out in bush planes. We had a big plane from Whitehorse that was supposed to pick us up. The weather turned bad just before they arrived and they could not land, so we hired bush planes to shuttle our gear over to the larger airport in Yakutat where the larger plane was waiting. You need a break down frame to do this river. This is SE Alaska so you might not get out exactly on the day you expected so flexibility is key. Brabazon Rafters' Support Services These folks were invaluable in assisting with the planes and hauling boats and gear to the airport. Pat is a character a real SE Alaskan, he has great salmon btw. We drove to White Horse, Yukon Territories from the west coast. This is a logistics intensive trip, it took us about a year to plan. Getting the reservations for the planes was a bit of a challenge they did not seem to be around during the winter so keep that in mind when setting up the shuttles. We went in August and managed to hit some nice weather, but definitely bring tarps you will be using them frequently. It is expensive but Pat at Brabazon knows all the pilots and he can makes some suggestions. We chartered a larger plane to get us back to White Horse, we found that to be the cheapest.


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## rivers2run (Jun 7, 2012)

The Forest Service was very helpful with trip planning they had some good suggestions, be sure to contact the Tongass NF they are a good starting point also as I mentioned Pat at Brabazon. We took our own boats, Tongass NF could tell you who the outfitters are. Be careful with cancellations as logistics takes time. The permit came up pretty fast.


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## wildh2onriver (Jul 21, 2009)

Google cloudburst productions for an outstanding guide book for the Tat and the Alsek.

Typically, depending on where you stage from, either Haines, AK or Whitehorse, YK, determines what planes you'll use and if you're renting equipment, what type of gear they'll supply. I've staged from both.

It's one of the greatest River trips I've ever had the privilege to be on.


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## Oc1paddler (Sep 6, 2005)

I did the Tat a few years ago and I'm planning on doing the Alsek probably 2018. I talked to a lot of people and it seemed like rental gear was really hit or miss. Some of the outfitters promised certain gear like self bailing rafts and then failed to deliver. Do to stories like that and my fondness for my gear I decided to drive. I towed a trailer up with my family, 4 rafts and everybody's gear. The other people flew in to Juneau and took the ferry to Haines were we hired somebody to shuttle us to the put in and bring my truck back to the airport. It worked out well and that's what we will probably do in 18. We chartered 4 Cessna 206's to get us from Dry Bay back to Haines. I think they were about $800 each and we filled them up with 4 rafts and 9 people. Amazing trip. Well worth the money we spent.


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## [email protected] (Apr 26, 2006)

If you want to do it this year just do it once it starts getting cold, that way you can run turnback.

I did the alsek in late july and it was sick but way to high for turnback. September is a good time to look for if you want to run that.

-Tom


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## davedlg (May 22, 2007)

We ran it in 2012 after spending 9 years on the waitlist - It didn't have to be that long, but that's when we were ready to pull the trip together. 

Logistics were complicated, to say the least. We flew into Juneau, then took the ferry (3 hrs?) up to Haines, where our outfitter was located. We used Stan Bohr / Alaska River Outfitters, and I couldn't have been happier. Boats were in good condition, and he was very helpful getting us setup for put in. Stan drove us up to the putin, about 2 hours or so from Haines. 

There were some class III rapids the first day, but nothing too unmanageable. The tat is a shallow, glacial fed, river with lots of side channels. Finding the right channel to get to a specific camp is challenging, and we spent a lot of time pushing boats through shallow channels. 

The confluence area with the Alsek is incredible - amazing views in every direction. A bit further down, Walker Glacier is a fun hike onto a very active glacier. Alsek Lake was something else - it's an amazing experience to float around amongst icebergs.

Like most things on this trip, the takeout is complicated. The Dry Bay airstrip is about a half a mile from the river. Because of post-glacial rebound, the side channel that runs next to the airstrip is drying up and is not really floatable except at the highest flows - I have heard of people rowing it upriver from the downstream side of the channel, but no one really recommended that approach. We ended up hiring someone at the takeout to haul our gear to the airstrip on an ATV - it wasn't cheap, but it beats the alternative. 

We hired Yakutat coastal airlines and their big turbine Otter to fly a few of us and our gear back to Haines. The flight from Dry Bay to Haines nearly surpassed the trip itself - it was incredible. After dropping our gear back off with Stan in Haines, we flew back to Dry Bay, picked up the rest of our group, and flew the short distance back to the Yakutat airport. From there, we caught the Alaska Airlines jet back home.

All in all, although the logistics were complicated, and it wasn't cheap, it was a great trip. 

Here's some photos of the trip: https://goo.gl/photos/qdfzDD9UAyAFphpK9


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## Treswright3 (May 20, 2013)

This trip is my number 1 dream trip. Im on the wait list now. If I happen to get a permit I would only have a few friends at most with the balls and cash to do this trip. So what Im saying is, If anyone scores a permit and has room, let me know. And if I get a permit, there is a good chance that I will be looking for a few to join too.


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## kayakdoc (Jun 27, 2009)

It's an amazing and beautiful trip. I did the Alsek/lowerTat it in July 2014. As others mentioned, the logistics are complicated and the expense is relatively high (I spent about $4k I think). A big expense is contracting a helicopter for the shuttle to get around the 10mi stretch of Turnback Canyon. It's unrunnable. Someone in the thread above mentioned running it at lower water to avoid the portage. That might be doable but I wouldn't want to run the entire stretch at that low of water. The braided sections are spread out over the course of the river- it becomes very wide and the water depth is shallow. We had to step out of the raft multiple times over the course of the trip to drag the raft across inches of water. The river is so opaque with silt we couldn't see much more than a 1/2inch or so below the surface. Without visibility to the river bed it's a big challenge to read where the deepest channels are to avoid getting stuck. Lava North rapid on the Alsek is very big, it's long and quite formidable. Class IV+/V, cold water, cold weather. Don't want to swim this one. Many other fun challenges running this river but what a lifetime adventure!


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## wildh2onriver (Jul 21, 2009)

The 'Slough' was closed for our last trip too, but we were able to float down and then walk the boats up -- though that sucked. It took awhile and it seemed like at least half a mile of wading and pushing.

Just as we got to the Dry Bay airstrip, our planes were arriving, so it was a scramble to de-rig and hump everything up the hill, sort and load planes. I can't remember how many plane loads for sure, but we had 15 peeps and and five or six boats. The total cost per person was less than $1200. Back in 2001 it was about the same with the huge twin prop from Whitehorse, though I didn't charge mileage to haul everyone's gear up, nor the ferry fees from Washington state.


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## Whitewater Worthy Equip (Dec 11, 2013)

The TAT is a great trip but not the only option if your looking for the Alaska experience. We now have a boat stashed in Anchorage and Flew up this year to do the Talkeetna for the first time. It is a great trip with awesome whitewater and easy logistics. We flew with Talkeetna Air Taxi in a beaver to a strip just down stream of Yellow Jacket Creek. One of our crew felt the need to pack like a Grand trip so we got 3 boating and 6 people in 3 loads costing $425 a person. You could easily get in cheaper if you didn't need two full size dry boxes and 162 qt cooler and two capt boxes. 

The trip is typically done in 3 days but we took 5 and had time to enjoy our selves. Unfortunately we were between the King and silver runs so I only caught 1 10" Bow with my $35 license but you pay your money and take your chances. 

The Whitewater is all is the Canyon and is essentially a 12 mile long rapid with some spots in the class IV range after paying the price of admission. The canyon starts with Entrance exam and Toilet Bowl both solid class 4 with very real flip and Long swim potential in 34 deg water. We had 15K on the gauge which is considered quite high and it was plenty spicy of our group. 

Over all a great trip with the added bonus of Big whitewater but there are better trips for scenery and glaciers. We have done the Copper River which ends near the town of Cordova a number of times and really like that trip. There are lots of options to put in that you can Taylor to your budget. There are a couple of different road accessible places and endless fly in options out of the town of McCarthy. One option is to fly in to the Tana and that provides some Grand Canyon style whitewater with a series of Rapids called On Ramp, Free Way, and Exit. The BIG features are called Soul Crushers and True Violence. The rest of the water is on the Nizina, Chitna, and Copper is more of a scenic float with tons of animals, Glaciers and sand dunes. take a second and google Miles lake and Childs glacier as those are both highlights of the trip. 

Did I mention No Permits required for any of the above options. It's always fun to spend time up there but opportunity costs and its tough to get people to commit to anything and these trips are no different.


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## ArcticSplash (Jan 24, 2021)

Treswright3 said:


> This trip is my number 1 dream trip. Im on the wait list now. If I happen to get a permit I would only have a few friends at most with the balls and cash to do this trip. So what Im saying is, If anyone scores a permit and has room, let me know. And if I get a permit, there is a good chance that I will be looking for a few to join too.


Hi 

Are you still trying to get on the Tat? [email protected].

Steve


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## SherpaDave (Dec 28, 2017)

It’ll be interesting if the border opens this year. So for now there’s hope and crossed fingers but that’s about it. Sure doesn’t help the list get any shorter.


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## ArcticSplash (Jan 24, 2021)

Dave 

This is not how the game is played. You are either in with the hope of the boarder opening. These trip take a lot of prep and commitment. I hope you find a trip in the future.


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