Alsek

Season: Summer. If you plan to run Turnback Canyon you can try to hit low flows at the end of May or in September. Early runs face the risk of an iced-in Alsek Lake and late season runs face the hardship of deteriorating weather conditions.

Background:

The Alsek, made famous as a whitewater run after Walt Blackadar's solo first descent in 1971, joins the ranks of the Grand Canyon of the Stikine and Devil's Canyon of the Susitna as one of North America's legendary class V+ bigwater runs. Only a handful of people have ever run all three.

This run is however accessible to those who don't want to tackle the four miles of intense class V+ whitewater in Turnback Canyon, as the rest of the run only has a few class IV sections and is mostly a long wilderness float that is routinely run. Most of this run is located within the boundaries of Canada, but because it ends with a paddle out on the lower Alsek, with a take-out on Dry Bay in Alaska, the run is typically included in guides to both Alaskan and Yukon whitewater. If you aren't interested in tackling Turnback Canyon and the idea of a long portage doesn't sound too appealing, you can always check out the Tatshenshini which offers a similar wilderness experience and joins the Alsek downstream of Turnback Canyon.

British Columbia's Tatshenshini-Alsek Park is bordered by the adjacent national parks of Kluane in the Yukon and Glacier Bay and Wrangell-St Elias in Alaska, creating a 97,000-square-kilometer ecological unit and bi-national World Heritage Site. Situated in the extremely rugged northwest corner of British Columbia, in 1993 it became the fourth component in the largest international protected area in the wo

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