Top Rafting Reads (for this COVID Christmas)

Looking for some great rafting reading to get you through this COVID-confined Christmas, and spark your juices for the upcoming paddling season?

Our friends at the International Rafting Federation have compiled just such an enlightening elixir, taking you from the steppes of Mongolia to the steeps of the Andes.

Following are a few of the reads you’ll find on the list:

Lost in Mongolia – Colin Angus
From the Yenisey’s headwaters in the wild heart of central Asia to its mouth on the Arctic Ocean, Colin Angus and his fellow adventurers travel 5,500 kilometres of one of the world’s most dangerous rivers through remotest Mongolia and Siberia, and live to tell about it.” “A great read that draws you in and amazes you. Available on Amazon

Pushing Rubber Downhill – Adam Piggott
From the tropical rainforests of Northern Australia, to the mountain rivers of British Columbia, the mighty Ugandan White Nile, and finally the cultural wonderland of the Italian Alps, Pushing Rubber Downhill explores one young man’s desire to make something of his life by doing the unbelievable. Available on Amazon

Rivergods: Exploring the World’s Great Wild Rivers – Richard Bangs
This book traces the adventures of explorers Richard Bangs and Christian Kallen as they raft down rivers in North and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia, selecting rivers with gradients that ensured white water. Along the way they combined physical challenge with anthropological and ecological investigation. Available on Amazon 

Brothers on the Bashkaus: A Siberian paddling adventure – Eugene Buchanan
Pork fat and sugar cubes, anyone? And, oh yeah, Class V on homemade rafts made out of germ warfare suits? Brothers on the Bashkaus follows the exploits of one of the first groups of Westerners to experience the very different Russian style of rafting on a white-knuckled, 26-day trip down the Bashkaus River, one of the hardest whitewater runs in all Siberia. Available on Amazon

Running the Amazon – Joe Kane
The voyage began in the lunar terrain of the Peruvian Andes, where coca leaf is the only remedy against altitude sickness. It continued down rapids so fierce they could swallow a raft in a split second. It ended six months and 4,200 miles later, where the Amazon runs gently into the Atlantic. Joe Kane’s personal account of the first expedition to travel the entirety of the world’s longest river is a riveting adventure in the tradition of Joseph Conrad, filled with death-defying encounters: with narco-traffickers and Sendero Luminoso guerrillas and nature at its most unforgiving. Available on Amazon

The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons – John Wesley Powell
This is legendary pioneer John Wesley Powell’s first-person account of his crew’s unprecedented odyssey along the Green and Colorado Rivers and through the Grand Canyon. It is an  account of a scientific expedition surviving some of the most dangerous rapids known to man and remains as fresh and exciting today as it was in 1874.” Skip to Chapter “The start from Green River Station” to get straight to the river action. Available on Amazon

The Emerald Mile – Kevin Fedarko
Fedarko is a master story teller. The thrilling true tale of the fastest boat ride ever down the entire length of the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon, during the legendary flood of 1983. Available on Amazon

Read full list HERE