MISSION EAST TO WEST Stories from the Vanishing Wild Rivers of Nepal.

Over the last 15 years, the beloved rivers of Anup Gurung’s native Nepal have endured massive destruction in the name of development. With wild rivers vanishing before his eyes, Anup decided he had to paddle them to document and bear witness to the rivers and cultures along their banks. In 2018, Anup asked three young paddlers to join him for a five-month expedition across Nepal that would push them and himself. In Mission East to West, Anup shares their experience, not as professional activists or experts, but as kayakers, river lovers, Nepalis; as men.

Words: Anup Gurung, Kripa Dongol

Stuck on a highway along the Kaligandaki River in 2017, an intense sadness washed over me as I watched an excavator chip away at the mountain, sending debris down, destroying the rapids below. I felt my past and my future slipping away, and a sense of urgency built. I decided that I wanted to see what remained of the rivers and the mountains of my country before it was all destroyed by human need and greed. As a young struggling kayaker, my only relationship with rivers was through paddling. My dream was to tick rivers off a list - to be the man who had paddled them all. But a cross-country river expedition seemed out of reach and felt more impossible with each passing year. My favorite rivers, the Bhotekoshi and…

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Kayak Session (Digital) - 1 Issue, Fall 2019

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