Published on November 30th, 2016 | by Kayak Session
1976 Dudh Kosi Expedition (Nepal) – Remastered Edit
Check out the remastered version of a piece of history for whitewater kayaker worldwide, the descent in 1976 of the Dudh Kosi, dubbed as the riverthat flows from the Everest. Featuring: Mike Jones, Mick Hopkinson, John Liddell, Robert (Bob) Hastings, Roger Huyton, Dave Manby and John Gosling. Legends all!
The pitch: At the beginning of July 1976 a team of ten including six kayakers and a ton of gear squeezed into a Transit mini-bus and drove the 7,500 miles to Kathmandu and then hiked the 180 miles to Everest Base Camp where the melt waters of the Khumbu glacier forms the head-waters of the Dudh Kosi. Here they launched their kayaks and started to Canoe down Everest. Mike Jones, who led the expedition, overcame the incredulity of the sponsors and the television company he approached by force of character and charisma to get them to back the expedition. Once backed the expedition team endured week-long breakdowns on the road overland, snow-blindness and sun burn, leeches and dysentery, high altitude swims and near drowning, but above all paddled some of the hardest white water tackled to date by any of the team. When they arrived back in Kathmandu after six weeks in the Himalaya they still had to drive the whole show back home. Four months after leaving the UK they arrived back in Dover at the beginning of November – the passport-control officer was non-plussed and on handing back the passports remarked « Been away long? » « Oh four months ». « Well, if you’re quick you’ll make last orders ». For the team members, however, it was, variously: a realization of 18 months planning, a life changing experience, a trip of a lifetime.
By: Leo Dickinson
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