The Road to Humla Traveling overland for a descent of Nepal's last free-flowing river

Typically, the road to the Humla Karnali isn't much of a road at all. It's more of a bus, fly, hike kind of mission that takes you seemingly to the edge of the entrance to the divine realms. In November 2022, David Sodomka made his pilgrimage to the Humla, traveling overland to discover a canyon with far more rapids and life than he had anticipated and a river no expedition paddler should miss.

David Sodomka

The Road to Humla Just as Karel Hynek Mácha's poem Máj belongs on the compulsory reading list for high school, the Humla Karnali should belong to the compulsory list of rivers for lovers of expedition paddling. Though I had always heard this, I thought the Humla was a mega-long river with only a few rapids and many valleys, accessible only by an expensive plane ride. It turns out I had the Humla classified quite wrong. Our expedition begins in Kathmandu, where I meet Vojta. While we wait for the rest of our team to arrive, we do a warm-up tour, paddling the Balefi, Bhote Kosi, Tambo Kosi, and Marsyandi rivers. Only after 10 days, instead of the other three expedition members, only Bouzíno arrived. Suddenly, we were left with only…

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Kayak Session (Digital) - 1 Issue, Fall 2023

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