Peter Weingarten was an Enduring Rivers Circle member, a group of river loving individuals who have made bequests on behalf of American Whitewater. To learn more about legacy giving, check out this article, our Enduring River Circle webpage, or contact bethany@americanwhitewater.org. This article first appeared in the May/June 2023 issue of the American Whitewater Journal.
BOTH INDIVIDUAL RIVERS AND INDIVIDUAL paddlers can be integral elements of a local white-water community. The North Fork of the South Platte River southwest of Denver, Colorado is one such river, and Dr. Peter Weingarten was one such paddler. His longevity, deep historical knowledge of whitewater sport, and pure love for the adventure of kayaking was an inspiration to multiple generations of Colorado boaters.
These places and people all converged for me one autumn day on the time-tested classic Bailey run of the NF South Platte. I was a very green, wide-eyed college kid being led by a few of my paddling mentors, already a decade older than me, when we ran into Dr. Weingarten, at the time three times my age. The reverence they had for him registered with just the looks on their faces and the enthusiasm with which they introduced us. His enthusiasm poured out in return, as he soaked in the joy of having such a perfect fall day on one of his very favorite local runs.
I was immediately impressed that a 60-year-old was still paddling at such a high level and with so much ease and joy. I also quickly connected the dots to my first experience “kayaking,” in high school at a party at my friend Jamie’s pool. Jamie (of the same last name) pulled the boats out of the garage to turn an evening of skinny dipping into K2 coed pool racing. A great party, maybe not with Dr. Weingarten’s direct approval, but in retrospect, I think he would have approved of this use of his boats.
Soon after that fall day, I found out that Jamie’s older brother Jed was an accomplished photogra-pher and that Peter had traveled all over the world and that Peter had traveled all over the world to paddle and recreate with his friends and sons, and continued to do so. As I followed both of their kayaking missions—Africa, Asia, Australia, South America, Europe—I realized that Peter never slowed down or ran out of passion for travel and serious whitewater.
His son Jed said of Peter, “He had a great fondness for the Himalaya, and he spent time on rivers all across that range, from Pakistan to India to Nepal to Bhutan. He joined me for several missions in China, including first descents of sections of the Dulong (Irrawaddy) and the Yarlung Tsangpo. He was always game for a mission! He really appreciated the way traveling to run rivers provided a way to experience a place. He truly paddled all over the world—one year, Land Heflin (Tarkio Kayaks) joked (and it may actually have been correct) that dad had paddled in more countries that year than Steve Fisher.”
Keep in mind, this was at a time when Steve Fisher’s job was to travel around the world and film for kayak movies, back when DVDs were the thing, and at a time when Peter was well into his 50s and a full time orthopedic surgeon. And a fine surgeon he was, having trained at both Harvard and Columbia universities; many paddlers in the region sought his council regarding their injuries. Although he preferred not to operate on friends, he was happy to refer them to his partners and to help guide fellow paddlers through the healing and recovery process. Peter took his orthopedic work incredibly seriously but also never lost his zest for life outside his professional world, somehow managing to balance his work with his paddling and family time with an ease that any working parent would envy.
Crash, one of Peter’s best paddling partners had this to say, “I first met Peter, sometime in the mid 60’s, while among a group of other kayakers milling around along a river in Massachusetts (likely during the Westfield River Races)…since we were both living in the Northeast at the time, and while I was also able to enjoy the four main benefits of teaching (Spring Break, June, July and August), we were therefore able to take whatever time was necessary for us join up on such New Hampshire rivers as the Pemigewasset, Ammanoosuc, Androscooggin, and the Saco. We also traveled to West Virginia to challenge rivers there, such as the Gauley, Tygart, New, Cheat, Yough-iogheny and several other creeks and rivers. One technique
I learned very early-on when kayaking with Peter, was to always keep his yellow helmet in sight, and to follow it closely, wherever it went, whatever route it took!
Crash further remembers, “When I eventually moved to Colo-rado, to Head the Vail Mountain School, Peter moved shortly thereafter to the Denver area. We were now both near some excellent Colorado rivers such as the Animas, Arkansas, Crystal, Dolores, and the Upper Colorado. We did eventually also take on the Colorado through the Grand Canyon…a total of three different times. Idaho soon became a favorite destination for Peter and me, along with our other occasional paddling companions such as Art Block, Randy Taplin, Walt Blackadar, Peter Skinner and Doug Wheat. Some of the top Idaho rivers we ran often were Big Creek through the Canyon of the Lower Middle Fork of the Salmon, the Selway, Lochsa, Owyhee, Bruneau, and the Payette. Regarding the logistics necessary for running many of the longer rivers in Idaho, Peter happily relied on me to arrange for food (and sometimes the shuttles as well)…Peter and I were a team: he was the “River Guide” and I the “Outfitter.” Later on, he was happy for me to do both the travel logistics AND the food planning! Peter was ALWAYS so cheerful, a terrific traveling companion, and so much fun to be with!”
Another long-time paddling partner of Peter’s, Marty Cronin, said, “I literally have him listed as my only life hero. He’s a guy who’s just completely gone over the fence, just kept kayaking in the front row of his life, totally dedicated to it throughout his entire life, all the way through a pretty serious career and kids and family and he just kept it going. He was always concerned about his drag on the group as he got older and it got harder for him, but it was an honor for me to carry his boat when his knee got really bad, just to keep him in the water longer. He barely took paddle strokes, he’d just angle into everything but he never swam, I mean I don’t know if he never ever swam but I never saw him swim.”
Stuart Holbrook remembers, “Kayaking Class V well into his mid 70s, Peter refused to let up. Routinely paddling with much younger paddlers at that point, Pete was always the ‘old guy.’ The one who had seen it all. With it he provided us all a rich and storied past of what it was like back in the day. Everyone who knew Pete has a million stories, God knows I do. He is a book waiting to be written. After years of kayaking with him in some of the most remote places on earth our last time together would be in Idaho. That last day on the Middle Fork, we pad-dled alone and side by side after five days to the confluence of the Main Salmon, talked about good days in the past and good days ahead, and looked back at the river together as we often do to offer thanks when about to take out. He then turned to me and said, ‘Stuart, is Redside Rapid coming up soon?’ I looked at him and laughed, “Pete, we ran that like an hour ago; this is the take-out!” He looked at me, rubbed his glasses, and smiled that grin I will always remember, replying, ‘Well, good to know I aced it. Burly.’”
Peter began paddling at a time before there were even boat kits, when you had to build your own wooden frame and fiberglass around it. Later, he got out to California with the early whitewater pioneers like Yvon Chounaird. Near the other end of his whitewater career, he paddled the Kern River’s tributary Brush Creek with a 9-year-old Dane Jackson; to this day, they are still the youngest and oldest paddlers to ever run it. Through it all, Peter maintained a strong conservation ethic and was a proud longtime supporter of American Whitewater. He passed away in 2021, leaving a legacy gift as part of our Enduring Rivers Circle program, and his memory undoubtedly lives on in the stories his friends and family continue to tell. Peter is survived by his wife Jane, two sons, Jed and James, and two grandchildren.
