Profile of an Adventurer

He probably knew he didn’t have a chance, once his kayak folded on a log in the South Fork of the Payette River in the early 70’s.

Walt Blackadar, the kayaking surgeon, from Salmon, Idaho was the Babe Ruth of kayaking in his day. Educated at Dartmouth he made his way to the rural West where he engaged in hunting and fishing, until he discovered kayaking. He ran rivers others thought to be too dangerous, and his famous solo run down the Alsek River in Alaska was chronicled in Sports Illustrated.

A competent physician and outdoorsman, he liked hard challenges. Over time his skills diminished, and new equipment and new techniques of boating enabled others to pass him by. Many, who admired what he had done for the sport of whitewater kayaking, felt strongly the loss of the 52-year-old whitewater pioneer.