Off the Map, Off the Grid to Explore B.C.’s Threatened Unuk River

Travis Rummel chronicles a first descent of the threatened Unuk River in BC.

Last summer, Ryan Peterson talked me and Gordon Klco into a first descent of the Unuk River from its source to sea. He made it sound like no big deal: Just hop in our Alpacka packrafts and casually float 100 miles downstream from the mountainous B.C. headwaters to the river mouth in Misty Fjords National Monument in southeast Alaska. We would shoot film along the way to help bring awareness to B.C.’s rampant development of large-scale mines on Transboundary Rivers in the region, in particular a proposed $5.3-billion mine on one of the Unuk’s tributaries, the Kerr-Suplhurets-Mitchell mine (KSM).

The expedition ended up being one of the hardest of my life.

LINK (via: Adventure Journal)

Defending Alaska & British Columbia salmon rivers from open-pit mining

An excerpt and action alert from an interview Ryan Peterson and Travis Rummel did with Trout Unlimited Alaska after a 100-mile transect of the Unuk River watershed.

LINK (via: The Cleanest Line)

Xboundary

An open-pit mining boom is underway in northern British Columbia, Canada. The massive size and location of the mines--at the headwaters of major salmon rivers that flow across the border into Alaska--has Alaskans concerned over pollution risks posed to their multi-billion dollar fishing and tourism industries. These concerns were heightened with the Aug 4, 2014 catastrophic tailings dam failure at nearby Mt. Polley Mine in BC's Fraser River watershed.

Take action to help protect our rivers, jobs, and way of life, at salmonbeyondborders.org.

Silver Tiger Taimen

Sea-run taimen live in the Russian Far East, where Amur tigers live. We tried to catch one on a fly.

Teaser for The Drake magazine article. Spring 2014 issue.
"Silver Tiger Taimen"
by Ryan Peterson
photography by John Sherman

We understand mere fragments

Photo: Justin Crump

I'm sure most of you remember Ryan Peterson's video One in Winter. Well Ryan penned a piece to go along with the video for Patagonia's The Cleanest Line and it brilliantly captures the essence of fly fishing for winter run steelhead.

LINK (Via: The Cleanest Line)

One In Winter

Whether it be The Season, Eastern Rises, The Big Pull, or The Kamchatka Steelhead Project, Ryan Peterson has played a starring role in some of the genre's most soulful media.

Here is the lead in on his latest effort.

A couple seasons ago I swapped fly rod for camera and followed my friend, Rich Zellman as he cast for winter-run steelhead. Over countless days, eye traced rod's path, over and over again. And over again.

This is what came of that effort.

Enjoy.