NPR Coverage of Rupert

The story of the Rupert found it's way into the spotlight via a radio show by Brian Mann of NPR. Check it out at www.northcountrypublicradio.org. About to present at the Gunnison River Symposium tonight, treating this as a test run for future presentation opportunities. Stay Positive. "Great Problems call for many small solutions."-- Wendell Berry

First Annual Gunnison Rivers Symposium

Rupert River Film Expedition member Mike Wight and I will be presenting at the Gunny Rivers Symposium on Saturday the 10th of November. If you're in the area and can attend please do. Here's the Press Release Kevin Heiner (an organizer of the event) put together:

River friends and friends of the river: on Saturday, November 10, Western State College will host the First Annual Gunnison Rivers Symposium in the Kebler Ballroom from 4-9PM. Admission will be FREE! Highlights of the event include: a kayaking film premier fresh from LVM productions, an outdoor gear and apparel raffle to benefit the Gunnison Whitewater Park and local and international speakers presenting about Colorado kayaking first descents, international water access issues, and the ecological and social affects of hydroelectric projects. (That's us!)
The schedule is as follows: At 4:00PM Doors Open, 4:20 Welcome and Introduction of Sponsors, Purpose, Philosophy, and Approach. 4:30 First Keynote Speaker: Daniel Gonzalez of Futa Friends (www.futafriends.org) -Daniel will discuss the state of the rivers in southern Chile and the conservation efforts this organization are undertaking to secure permanent protection status for the Futaluefu river and other wild rivers of Chile and Argentina from hydroelectric and mining interests. 5:00 Second Keynote Speaker: Dan Piano of Steamboat Springs-Dan and crew (Routt County River Enforcement-for all you Mountainbuzzers (www.mountainbuzz.com)) have done four first descents on Colorado creeks in Routt County in the last two years. Dan will have some video footage, slides, and will explain how these descents were accomplished. 5:30 Third Keynote Speaker: Mike Wight and Steve King from Nederland and Boulder, CO-Last July, Mike, Steve, and 3 others embarked on an ambitious expedition to Northern Quebec to run the obscure and gigantic Rupert River. The Rupert peaks at 180,000 c.f.s.! Their plan was to run it in canoes, portage the unrunnable, high-flow class VI rapids while documenting the state of the river in its free-flowing state with video and still photography before it will be dammed! The politics of the proposed damming are not entirely transparent and these adventurers plan to expose the political, social, and ecological dynamics involved by producing a film documentary. They will have a trailer for the movie and an involved slideshow and discussion for this event. 6:00 Dinner Break, 7:00 Film Premier-Lunch Video Magazine’s #24 Begins, 8:30 Raffle Drawing, 9:00 Doors Close. Afterwards: After party at the Gunnison Brewery. Ten percent of food sales proceeds will benefit the Gunnison Whitewater Park.
Event sponsors include: Western State College, The Alpineer, Black Tie Ski Rentals of Crested Butte, Gene Taylor’s Sporting Goods, Colorado Kayak Supply, Lunch Video Magazine, Vewda Productions, and Futa Friends. Please call Kevin @ 970.846.2300 for more details or to donate to or sponsor this event.

First Bits of Footage

Many folks have been hoping for a glimpse so I had to post this little teaser. We converted it to an mpeg to make it smaller, so don't expect the quality to be as good as the final product will be. Thanx Alexandra Waterman for help with the editing. Also in Rupert news-- there was a big protest in Montreal last friday in front of the Hydro-Quebec Headquarters. Alex Lee and his Project Laundry Listers raised a laundry line with some awesome T-shirts and poignant messages for Hydro. The Three chiefs of the communities most effected by the project launched a new website for you to check out, www.savetherupert.org.

Put Out

We survived the Rupert, but the Rupert will not survive us. When we got to the put-in, Hydro-Quebec had rolled out the cement carpet. You can now drive to what was only last year still a pristine campsite on a spit of granite in the middle of a sick class IV drop. Now it is the site of absolute carnage. the mountain on the riverbank has a huge canal already carved through it to divert the river. day and night, trucks move earth while excavators and dynamite push the canal deeper into the mountain.the forest around is being clearcut. 10,000 workers are moving onto the land, and 1,000 helicopters are being used to shuttle in men and dynamite and bags of concrete to build the dams. We documented the intact rapids and also the destruction as it is happening. Also found several amazing folks to talk to us about what's occuring. On the river, we flirted with by far the gnarliest rapids in North America and maybe the world. I won't say anything more until I've figured out Final Cut Pro and have some footage for you. This story has to be seen to be believed. Thanx so much to everyone who made this happen-- my crew, my family, my friends, my sponsors, my luck, and especially my hairstylists. We're working on a website for the film and are beginning to edit the amazing collection of footage as well as create animations to complete the story so stay tuned.

Departure

We've been super busy in the past few weeks: making paddles and wannigans, begging gear companies for boats and gear, shipping boats, patching boats, wiring solar panels, buying cameras and gear, working as much as possible in order to afford and rationalize taking a month off, and finally mobilizing the Colorado Crew in order to rendezvous in Vermont for food planning, shakedown trips, and packing out. Unfortunately, Julian Campbell broke his collar bone in a motorcycle crash, so the crew is down to five swarthy gentlemen. Scott Ellis, Mike Wight, Casey Bradley, Nate Ballinger, and myself are meeting in Middlebury tomorrow to complete final trip prep and then drive to Cree land. Apparently the plans for moving workers up onto the land have been pushed back to 2009, which gives us plenty of time to shoot, cut, and distribute the film before the diversion project has a big impact on the river. Who knows, maybe we can still leave the power in the river! Check out the latest issue of Canoe and Kayak, where my feature article has been published discussing the situation on the Rupert and describing my trip with Keewaydin last summer. I'd like to thank the players who have gotten the project to the put-in; Keewaydin and Songadeewin and the many amazing folks there, the family and loved ones of myself and my tripmates, the reps from Smith Optics, Mountain Hardwear, Old Town Canoe, and Pyrannha Kayaks, my coworkers and boss Tony Boniface at Independent Power Systems in Boulder, Bryan Powell of Eyeline Media, Pete Mortimer and Nick Rosen of Sender Films for advice and hand-holding, Chris Bell of Bellfoto for giving us a sick deal on the DVX100, Brunton for making an awesome amorphous thin film solar panel, and especially Alex Waterman for bringing me dinner and beer all last week when it was midnight and I was still foolishly trying to get work done. I might post again before we head north but if not, expect some footage and exciting news soon. Wish us luck!

Almost Ready to Put In

So the reports of 2,000 workers entering the land are still unconfirmed. There is, however, an unprecedented number of paddlers heading to Rupert this summer. Camp Darrow, Chewonki, and of course Keewaydin are all sending trips. The tradition of the Cree youth of Waskaganish running the Rupert will continue at least one last year, and there is another film crew hitting the river in addition to our own. Perhaps it's not too late to mount the type of media campaign that could bring this story to people's hearts and mobilize a larger force to save the Rupert. As for me, I've been slaying solar electric systems 70 hours a week to rationalize taking next month off to be on the river. In the past few months, I've had the chance to put solar panels on Coors field baseball stadium and so many homes. I've squeezed in some paddling and filming, too in order to get in shape for the Rupert. We're about set to go, and everyone involved is psyched to get up there and just be on the river.

Bulldozers in Position

The news today is that construction is beginning. I wish I was up there to talk to the workers. I also wish I spoke French. Maybe I could talk to them in the universal language. Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Lots going on. Typing in sentence fragments out of tiredness. Tired of people damming rivers. Tired of putting solar panels on roofs. Just tired. as for the trip, the cast of characters is being distilled down to the True Players. Can't wait to be on the River! Colorado is flooding, so I've been training for the Fours. I'll try to find out exactly what construction has been done and post the news. Remember, construction has started and then been stopped before!