The Last Descent film doesn’t come out until spring 2009, but for Scott Ligare and the rest of the Last Descent crew, the mission starts now.
Ligare flies out October 17 for Katmandu, Nepal where he, Katie Scott and Lizzie English, will begin the trek up the Marsyandi River, the first classic in their crosshairs and one that will soon be under water. “The dam is done,” says Ligare, former World Class Kayak Academy program director and star of TGR’s Nurpu and Vallhalla. “They just haven’t started filling up the reservoir yet.”
After Nepal Ligare, Scott – a cofounder of Ebb and Flow Productions with Ligare – and English will be joined by Charlie Center and Seth Warren. They’ll travel overland to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and the put-in of the Brahmaputra River. Sometime in January, they’ll fly to Uganda and the White Nile, finishing the mission this spring in California, filming that state’s damed gems. The Last Descent will chronicle this journey as they run classic whitewater rivers on four continents slated to be destroyed by hydropower.
“Due to Global Warming, people are looking to hydropower as a “clean” alternative for power production” says Ligare.. “What isn’t talked about in this “clean” argument is the large scale destruction that goes along with dams and hydro power production. This issue is something the public needs to be aware of. We can’t stop dams already built or being built but we can show people the great places on earth that are being destroyed.“
– Joe Carberry
Check back with Paddling Life as we update you on the adventures of the Last Descent Crew.