RAFTING THE TATSHENSHINI RIVER
by Rich Henke

BACKGROUND

The Tatshenshini River or Tat as it is called, combines moderate whitewater with some of the most stunning alpine scenery in North America. It has been designated a World Heritage Site. With headwaters in the mountains of Canada's Yukon Territory, the Tat flows through British Columbia to Alaska, and ends at the Pacific Ocean. It cuts through the St. Elias and Fairweather mountain ranges, the largest nonpolar glaciated mountain system in the world.

The put-in at Dalton Post is reachable by road. The most difficult rapids are near the start. After forty-five minutes of Class 3 rapids (Class 4 at high water), the remainder of the trip is Class 2 but with a fast current, many sweepers, and big volume. By the time you reach the confluence with the Alsek River, the flow has increased in size many times and can reach above 100,000 cfs. Twenty-eight glaciers are visible from the confluence. Further downstream, as you approach Alsek Lake and the "Channel of Death", you must scout and decide which channel to use to enter the lake to avoid being crushed by icebergs. 15,300-foot Mount Fairweather is in the background and can be seen on clear days. The take-out, at Dry Bay on the Alaska coast in the northern part of Glacier Bay National Park, must be done via bush plane since there is no road or boat access.

In December 2003, I was surprised to find that I had received a private permit to run the Tat. I was #213 on the wait list and since only about 40 private trips are authorized each year, I assumed it would be several years before my turn came. I called my rafting friends, and the July 2004 Tatshenshini trip was underway.

After considerable research, our group of 15 people decided to start the trip in Haines, Alaska, also known as the bald eagle capital of the world. Haines is a very picturesque town, which was recently listed as one of the top 10 adventure towns in the USA by "National Geographic Adventure" magazine. Participants flew to Juneau, the capital of Alaska, and then took a ferry to Haines to begin the trip. We arranged to rent four rafts and the necessary accessories locally from Nels Niemi, a very experienced river runner whose knowledge of the Tat was indispensable to us. He also arranged transport to the put-in at Dalton Post, located about 100 miles north of Haines. After the 11-day trip, we flew from Dry Bay to Yakutat, where scheduled Alaska Air commercial flights are available. The rental gear was flown from Dry Bay back to Haines separately via bush plane.

It is quite complicated to rent rafts sight unseen. The four people on the trip who would be rowing were accustomed to using their own rafts configured in a certain way. Several of us arrived a day in advance to make sure that we understood how the rafts were assembled and organized. And we had to confirm that other items we were renting such as tarps, kitchen equipment, toilet setups, and stoves met our needs. Many of us bought supplies such as rubber boots (also referred to as Alaska tennis shoes) in local Haines stores. By Saturday evening, everything seemed to be in order. We enjoyed a night at the historic Halsingland Hotel in Haines, which also has a campground, and looked forward to Sunday's departure to Dalton Post.

FLOATING THE TAT

Day 1 July 18, 2004
Up at 6:30 a.m. for a 7:30 a.m. rendezvous with Nels. He and a friend, Dan Chavez, drive 2 vans, one pulling a trailer, that transport 15 people plus gear to Dalton Post. After loading an enormous pile of bags, bundles, frames, gear, and food, we head north. On the way, we stop at Roadhouse 33 for a real Alaska breakfast. Around noon, we finally arrive at the put-in. We spend our first night here since it takes most of the day to assemble and organize the rafts.

Day 2
The major excitement for the day is when Marla and Simon have our first (and only) close-up grizzly bear encounter. They meet a mother with 2 cubs on the road while walking to the restrooms. Luckily the bears are not interested in socializing and make a wide detour.

Some rivers let you warm up a bit before you reach the hardest rapids. Not the Tat! The crux of the trip, the 7-mile stretch called "The Canyon", begins only an hour or so from the put-in. Although the rapids are only rated Class 3 at normal water levels, the water is fast and there is little opportunity to scout. And everyone we talked to had warned about cold water and unpleasant swims. The warnings were dire enough that my 2-person SOAR inflatable canoe remains rolled up and packed away on a raft. Chris Jaquette pilots the lead boat and 45 minutes later, it is all over. The canyon does not prove to be difficult at our water levels. Now we can relax and enjoy a float down one of the most spectacular rivers in the world. By 12:30 p.m., we are at our campsite at Silver Creek.

Day 3
I assemble the SOAR and paddle it for the remainder of the trip. We have slow current all day as we float to our camp at Sediment Creek, where we camp in a field carpeted by wildflowers.

Day 4
Today is a layover hiking day. There are not many places along the Tat that you can get high above the river without having to bash through a lot of brush. The Sediments hike is popular because a good use trail takes you into the alpine with a minimal amount of bushwacking. We see huge grizzly claw marks on a tree along the trail. After climbing about 2,000 feet through fields of fireweed and other wildflowers, we wander around on a high plateau, take millions of photographs, and enjoy a 360-degree view. Some people see a grizzly about 1 mile away and we also see some tiny white dots identified as Dall's sheep. And of course we always see bald eagles.

Day 5
The size and speed of the river increases. We run Monkey Wrench Rapid, the 1st whitewatersince the canyon. It is just big waves as we stay on the right. This site is where a bridge across the river would have been built if the copper mine project proposed in the early 1990's had been approved. Luckily for river runners, the area was protected. Camp is just before the huge Henski Creek Delta, which appears as a flat plain several miles across. Our good weather comes to an end as it drizzles during the evening and we make good use of our tarps to cover kitchen and fire. We set up our tents in a row near the river so as not to block the bear trail just behind them. How do we know it is a bear trail? BIG tracks!!!

Day 6
More big fast water today. It is foggy in the morning. At the mouth of Henski Creek, all the rafts and the SOAR end up in a huge circulating eddy and an eddy line tilts the canoe at a 45-degree angle. But we survive! As we proceed downstream, I have to work hard to keep the SOAR on the inside of the many turns to avoid sweepers on the outside. As we near our camp at Melt Creek, visibility drops to a few hundred feet. Fog above the colder stream flowing into the Tat obscures the location of the channels and camp. Dave Jaquette does a great job of locating a landing spot just downstream from Melt Creek. We assemble tents one at a time under the tarp to keep the insides dry before moving them into the rain. Luckily we have no wind so everyone is happy having dinner and roasting marshmallows around the fire. Dinner tonight is burritos made to order.

Day 7
We are only a few miles from the confluence. Here the Tat merges with the mighty Alsek River. Twenty-eight glaciers are said to be visible from this spot but the heavy fog obscures most of them. Just a few days before our trip, the flow downstream of the confluence was 130,000 cfs. It is foggy again as we wind our way though the huge delta to the mile wide river. One raft becomes separated in a different channel and out of view for several miles but communication via walkie-talkies aids the reunion. The sun comes out prompting a stop to do another hike called "The Nose". We choose to ascend a steep snowfield rather than bushwack through very thick brush. Several of the group reach the top for a grand view while others do shorter versions of the hike or drink tea at the rafts. Later, camp is next to the Walker Glacier, so named because "it is the glacier you can walk on". Tarps again aid setting up tents as the rain returns.

Day 8
The weather cooperates as we do a 3-hour morning hike onto the ice of Walker Glacier.We have close-up views of deep crevasses and "moulins", the French word for wheelwell, where the water carves a well from the surface of the glacier to the basement level of the ice. Icy streams plunge down the moulins for 50-100 feet. It is easy to navigate on the flat icy surface of the glacier.

In the afternoon, we move down the river, passing by the huge Novatak Glacier. Another rapid is navigated but it is easy to go around the big waves in the middle of the river. We camp on what is called "The Peninsula" where a short walk takes us to the edge of Alsek Lake containing dozens of icebergs of all sizes that mill about. Three miles across the lake, almost out of sight in the mist, is the face of the Alsek Glacier. Cloud cover keeps us from seeing Mount Fairweather and we decide it should be renamed "Mount Foulweather".

Day 9
We take another rest day. A major activity is a 2-hour hike to the end of the Peninsula to scout "The Doors", also known as the "Channel of Death". We must determine which of 3 channels we will use tomorrow when we enter Alsek Lake in the rafts. You court disaster if you choose a channel blocked by icebergs as the swift current will force the boats directly into them. It appears that door No. 1 will work, but we will check again tomorrow, since the icebergs tend to move around with the wind. The second activity is to portage the SOAR to the lake where we take turns paddling around photographing the icebergs and listening to the glaciers calving. There is no wind today making the water mirror smooth while the fog and clouds impart a mystic quality to the scene. This is the highlight of the trip for many of us.

Day 10
It is raining again in the morning. The weather near the coast has lived up to its reputation. Today's scouting report is that Door No.1 is still open. We have no problem passing around the nearby icebergs as we travel just 3 miles to our final campsite below Gateway Knob. It rains continuously as we set up the tarp and tents. Building a fire with the water soaked wood is difficult but we are finally successful mostly due to Donna's expertise. It rains almost continuously for the remainder of our trip. We later learn that the nearby town of Yakutat received 2 1/2 inches during this latest storm. In such conditions, keeping anything dry is almost impossible. It is more important to stay warm which often requires wearing a sufficient amount of damp synthetic clothing.

Day 11
The rain lightens in the morning, which makes packing the rafts a bit easier. But visibility is still poor and it is colder than at any time on the trip. (Maybe 45-50 degrees F.) Here the river runs through lowlands and we no longer have glaciers on all sides. We reach Dry Bay around noon. The rain continues as we de-rig the rafts and prepare the gear for transport to Yakutat or Haines. The flights to Haines have not gone for several days and even the more reliable Yakutat flights are uncertain. But by the end of the day, about half of the group reach Yakutat. Most of the remaining people use the service provided by a local entrepreneur, Pat Pellet. For $50 each, he provides a warm, dry bunkhouse to sleep in and all the fresh salmon we can cook. We string lines from the walls to dry out our wet clothing and gear. The people who flew to Yakutat, of course, have hotel rooms and restaurants at their call.

Day 12
Since the Haines flight is still not available due to weather, the remainder of the group also decides to fly from Dry Bay to Yakutat. The gear is left in a sorted pile to be air transferred later when the weather clears. Several other "piles" from earlier groups in the same predicament will have priority. For most of the group, Yakutat is the departure point for home. For the four of us that need to return to Haines, we use a detour route by flying commercially to Juneau, spending the night, and then going back to Haines in the morning by ferry.

For Craig Miller and myself, arrival in Haines will be the start of another adventure as we plan to spend the next 18 days canoeing the South Nahanni River in the Northwest Territory of Canada. A separate trip report for that excursion has been written and can be found at www.adventureplus.org.

SUMMARY

Participants on the trip came from all over America. The 4 rafts were captained by Dave Jaquette, Dave's son Chris, Craig Miller, and Ed Herrman. My daughter Marla and her husband Simon Azriel joined Rena and me, along with other friends, Zip Kellog, Donna Copeland, John Otter, Judi Steciak, Carl Hamke, Steve Cochran, and Shawn White. We had a very compatible and experienced group. The weather we experienced was probably better than average at the beginning and worse than average at the end.

The total cost of the raft trip was $539 per person excluding food and transportation to Haines and from Yakutat via commercial air and ferry. A comparable commercial trip (including food, but not commercial air) would cost about $3000.

LOGISTICS

(1) To get on the waiting list for a private permit for the Tat requires a $25 fee. Call Glacier National Park at 907-784-3295 or e-mail GLBA_Alsek_Info@nps.gov. All gear can be rented in Whitehorse or Haines. The Park will send you all the information you will need to rent gear, arrange transportation, and prepare for the trip.

(2) A private trip on the Tat requires that people be self-sufficient for a 10-day stay in wilderness conditions. This includes the ability to (a) administer first-aid, (b) communicate with the outside world in an emergency, (c) withstand exposure to rain and cold, (d) camp in a grizzly and black bear environment, (e) have the technical skills necessary to raft the river, and (f) be proficient in risk assessment. Although many of these skills can be read about and learned in classes, they are best learned through experience and at least some of the people on your trip should be experienced in wilderness rafting and survival. The park service provides a detailed list of items that you need to bring along and makes many other recommendations. We carried both an aircraft radio and a VHF radio, while some groups rent a satellite radio.

(3) Food was simple. Most of us were responsible for providing a dinner for 15 people. Everyone was responsible for individual breakfasts, lunches and drinks. We prepared basic but hearty dinners. No frozen meats or frozen anything, since we didn't take ice. We used a dutch oven several times. People get extra hungry in these environments.

(4) We drank our water directly from clear side streams which is what most of the local people do. People who believe in the Giardia hysteria prevalent among many backcountry managers and users, may want to take a filter. See www.adventureplus.org and click on "controversial topics" for my thoughts on Giardia.

(5) The Tat is grizzly bear terrain. We burned all of our garbage, paper, and plastic to avoid food odors. Contrary to popular belief, burning most types of plastic does not pollute the atmosphere any more than burning wood does. We had several cans of bear spray, which we carried on hikes through brush and kept in the toilet area. We tried not to block the natural bear corridors along the river. The bears in this region are not food conditioned and there have been few problems. But we spent a lot of time determining how we would deal with bears. The park information packet references many good sources of bear information.

(6) There are several flight services that can transport your group and gear from Dry Bay. Alsek Air based in Yakutat (call 907-784-3231 or e-mail alsekair@ptialaska.net) provided us with very good service. We were extremely happy to rent our rafts and gear from Nels Niemi (e-mail: nelbertnow@hotmail.com, mail: Yukon Services, Haines, AK 99827, message: at Chilkoot Guides 907-766-2491.) Although not as organized as some, Nels is very reliable and has an amazing knowledge of river running. He had very reasonable prices, all his equipment was configured very well, and he added some local flavor to our stay in Haines.