It was interesting, to say the least, to land in Islamabad after several major incarnations of what we in the USA solely see and hear from the media about Pakistan: terror. Islamabad was in the midst of recovering from the bombing of the Marriott Hotel and next door gov't building, cross border drone attacks from the USA, and a controversial presidential election. We stopped where the blast crater was just getting topped off in front of the Marriott Hotel and sped by the nearby Red Mosque, which has also seen much violent excitement in the past year. It was a daunting introduction to the threat of Muslim extremism in Pakistan.
The Team:
Roland Stevenson: trip mastermind; cultural guide; price haggling master, inshallah al hamdulillah.
Ben Stookesberry: ultra-motivated trip leader; shit-runner; boat scouting guru.
Darin McQuoid: photo capturing guru; California homeboy; undeterred to boat scout class V after two days of chundering at our hotel in Skardu.
Phil Boyer: realistic/optimistic decision maker; solid on the water and an assuring presence on the river; did not get wet, the water got Phil Boyered
Rafa Ortiz: Red Bull representative, left early to get back to Mexico City for finals(but otherwise would have cut our portage total, maybe significantly), easily lost in a crowd of Pakistanis.
Me: drank more "Haleeb, The Thickest Milk" than previously thought possible in Pakistan
(Need to give Roland extra credit here, for making this trip entirely possible and hooking it up with Mr. Zakaria for a place to stay in Islamabad and innumerable translation and general cultural awareness instances. Shukria al hamdulillah)
We left Islamabad and spent two long days driving the Karakoram Highway to Skardu high in the heart of the greatest mountain range on earth, the Karakoram mountains, home to more than sixty 7000 meter peaks, K2, and some of the world's largest non-polar glaciers. We passed through places where natural devastation and extreme poverty stood to highlight the intense natural beauty and local hospitality of the region. We drank tea with villagers to whom illiteracy, herding, and farming have been reality for centuries. While on the river we passed villages accessible only by steep, exposed trails and old bridges high above the water. We were made nervous to float under the incessant road construction blasting in ever developing rural Pakistan. It was just another obstacle towards the safe and full descent of the Indus River through the Rondu Gorge.
Terraced village in one of the most inhospitable places on earth.
A typical view of the Karakoram Range behind the foothills.
Views from the river.
The 'Killer Mountain', Nanga Parbat.
The river was hard. Maybe the hardest any of us had ever done. At times it was tranquil, but scouts and fierce strokes were often and relaxing was a far off dream. The intense mountain scenery and enormous scale of the landscape framed relaxation into a foreign and even unneeded luxury. The challenges the people of the Indus valley face every day proved that our expedition was merely a drop in the full flow of the mighty Indus.
We tried to keep moving at a rate that would get us to the confluence of the Gilgit and Indus Rivers in as short a time as possible, but we had to juggle more than just the challenges of the river, landscape, and logistics. Aside from the legal/permit issues we had to deal with before even putting on the water, the military escort afforded by the District Commissioner of Skardu, we were suddenly and fully absorbed into the education efforts of the Dawn School in the village of Hanuchal.
Roland and I spent an afternoon teaching English to a class of gravely respectful students in one of the four stone classrooms next to the main classroom, pictured below.
In a part of the world considered to harbor terrorism and radical Muslim militants, the front lines of the war on terrorism are spreading to classrooms just like this one. Greg Mortenson is bringing it there with his less-than-massive initiative of education and literacy as the firepower against terrorism. His CAI is building schools and promoting education, especially for girls, in very remote and sometimes volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Mortenson greeting a young girl on his way to greet every student at an event in Jafarabad in Northern Pakistan.
We drew crowds regardless of which side of the river, though the road-side offered better access for the biggest crowds. Darin McQuoid ready for some hand-gesture communication and a pee-wee soccer style line of handshakes.
Difficult whitewater.
Possible location for the next beach volleyball world championships, one of our super beach camps, shot beautifully, at night by DM.
More difficult whitewater.
Brrrrr, many cold days on the water, but never a cold head or ears. You might not expect it, but these little flaps work wonders.
Hospitality is highly regarded in Islam, and we were never without hands to shake or tea to drink. I think this particular group gave us about a half kilo of dried apricots.
Shred Ready Fan Mefford Williams writes in about his travels in the land of blue eyed blonds, waterfalls, expensive beer, au natural refridgeration
photo by mefford williams
so everybody knows norway. it's famous, especially famous among whitewater boat riders. everyone wants to hear about and see the big waterfalls, beautiful blond women and amazing scenery from norway. i am just back from my second summer there, and my gorgeous girlfriend was there with me and didn't run anything over 40 feet; so you can just go ahead and not be interested.
beautiful brunette: photo by mefford williams
exaggerated forty: photo by philly williams
the roads in norway may be interesting, however photo by mefford williams
my experience in norway involved living and working as a river guide on the jolstra river for jolster rafting in the jolster kommune. mostly guiding rafts: photo by amos shuman
and safety boating whenever the chance arose: photo by amos shuman
although incredibly scenic, i was pretty much in the middle of ding dang nowhere. photo by mefford williams
oh wait...the sogndal river was only an hour away: photo by jono ramsey
the goods are there. believe me. i saw them with my own two eyes: photo by jono ramsey
the goods are also all up in and around the very voluptuous village of voss, where, after much weaseling, we were able to leave work and attend the world famous "voss extreme sports week". a festival of extreme activities, extreme people and extremely expensive beer...
amos shuman puts the energy from hot dogs wrapped in bacon to good use: photo by philly williams
the author. put in rapid. brandsetelva. photo by amos shuman
philly bear williams enjoying some norwegian goods: photo by mefford williams
the author - a competitor. competitors get into the festival tent to see shows at a discount, but the race course is a good time too. I guess that's a win win. photo by elizabeth duncan
the mo' gives you an advantage and allows you to stand out as a kayaker when you are kicking it at parties with base jumpers and extreme skiers: photo by elizabeth duncan
philly bear williams. still enjoying norway: photo by mefford williams
amos shuman. same: photo by mefford williams
good times where had by all. even though we weren't nearly as hard core as this other blog that you just read, even though we didn't run flemming's fossen on two consecutive days like tommy, even though i only drank like 12 beers over the course of 5 1/2 months. chances are good you could have a fun time in norway as well. take your helment, because rocks hurt. and don't forget, norway is also half way to the himalayas from asheville: photo by mefford williams i didn't set any records on my trip there either, though, so i am sure no one wants to hear about it. peace in the middle east
Tom, It's Jason from Louisiana, now Charlotte, you made the custom glitter pink Sherlock for my wife, anyway you hooked me up with the Standard Halfcut with the SR splash graphics at Gauleyfest this year. The helmet is killer real good fit and after paddling at the USNWC park a bunch and taking a number of good solid hits at M wave and sunset wave it is showing no signs of even being in the water, the graphic still looks great, the Standard is quickly become the choice helmet at the park, buddy of mine picked up the fullfacce after seeing how mine has held up. On a side note it really keeps your head warm too, at least compared to my old Sherlock. Have a good holiday and we'll see you at NAWFest.
Jay
here is his helmet not sure if he got the half cut or full cut:
Hello? Hello? Tom, mi amigo, can you hear me? Rodrigo calling in: Rodrigo-Garcias-demshitz run some more shit
Hello there my dear Shred Ready Team.
What can I say, Pucon have more and more surprises every day and every year, I was running the Nevados river for some years and was all the time very popular the normal take out, but no more.
Also, have the opportunity to paddle whit a solid and good crew, of course is very important and make the big diferent, I love to paddle whit the Garcias brother and the Deam Shitz team, is good to have peolple that whant to Fire Up good all the time...and run the S$%&/(:...Thanks to Jared Seiler from Pyranha team and Deam Shitz for make the run more easy and show us the line en el Diablito...
Here is the new big water fall in Town the Low Nevados,,,awesome good...
remember to go Garcia's Blog for have more action and follow they life here in Chile
The rest of the run,,,AWESOME GOOD...very hard rapids and incredible deep canyon.
We ready start to work whit kayakpucon and that part also go good...
See you on the good ones....
Special thanks for Fred and Ian, for the cool shot of that day...
And also incredible thanks to Shred Ready Helmet...
Robin Betz sent in this video from Rapid Transit. The ladies are shredding it up and looking good in those vixens. Check out the custom artwork on the Super Scrappy at the beginning of the video.
Shred Ready has teamed up with Mad River Rockets and the Sled Head Team to protect their team riders. These guys are making an ol past time new.
Also check out their other videos. I especially liked the "The Street's a Stage (T.S.AS) skating video. Tom Mull's style reminded me of Rodney Mullin skate tricks.
What ever you say about sledding you got hand it to these guys for pushing and being creative in everything they do. We are happy to have them shreddin it up with the new Standard Half Cut with Customized graphics their Crew. I will post those pics here soon as I have finished their awesome helmets.
Check out their logo; I think it's rad.
Here is a bit of how they got started from Tom Mull:
"Yeah sure I can give you more info. I am 18, Steve Mull is 17, and Josh Gauthier is 17. We live in the Bennington and Manchester areas of Southern Vermont. We've all been sledding for about 6 or 7 years maybe. Started out riding K-mart sleds (there's some footage on our channel), just invented a lot of weird stuff for fun. Then we heard about Mad River Rocket sleds, so I sent Whit Phillips some footage and he liked it so he's been sending us free sleds ever since. We try to put together a video every year, most of the segments are on youtube. Earlier this year I sent footage to Skullcandy earphones and they loved it, so now we're riding under flow-sponsorship from them. I sent more footage out over the summer and got a response from PRO-TEC, so we're sponsored by them now as well. It's a pain dealing with the representative so now we're looking for a new helmet/padding sponsor."
p.s. My three brothers and I skate a lot. We also make a lot of skate videos as you can probably tell. Thanks for the compliment on my style ha. The main reason that I ride like that is because I have bad joints and can't skate like my bros."
In a part of the world considered to harbor terrorism and radical Muslim militants, the front lines of the war on terrorism are spreading to classrooms just like this one. Greg Mortenson is bringing it there with his less-than-massive initiative of education and literacy as the firepower against terrorism. His CAI is building schools and promoting education, especially for girls, in very remote and sometimes volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. 
