1-800-346-6277Alaska & the Arctic Adventures
Why O.A.R.S. in Alaska & the Arctic?
While on a 1977 Tatshenshini River trip in Alaska, O.A.R.S. Founder and President George Wendt, witnessed a vastness even greater in magnitude than the Grand Canyon. It was a profound experience for him to travel approximately 150 miles through territory utterly untouched by human development.
‘The Tat' was a very different type of river than he had previously experienced, taking him through lush glacier-carved, U-shaped valleys teeming with wildlife. Walking on a glacier certainly offered a dramatic change from the hot desert southwest where he had spent much of his time. He recognized immediately it was a place he needed to share with others.
Following a series of attempts to acquire a permit on the Tatshenshini, in 2002, O.A.R.S. ultimately partnered with longtime friend and operational partner, Brian McCutcheon, from R.O.A.M. (Rivers, Oceans and Mountains). In partnership with R.O.A.M., O.A.R.S. now offers our travelers trips on ‘the Tat' along with unprecedented access to one of the most pristine wilderness environments in the world and the largest migration of caribou in North America on the Firth River adjacent to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
As we enter this country, we are alive to its abundance and beauty, but also to its limits. Even in this remote corner of the world, events conspire daily to remind us that everything is finite. Nothing is in shorter supply than solitude. With O.A.R.S., you will visit one of America's last wild lands and experience the best Alaska and Arctic river rafting tours available anywhere. Treasure it as we do. And please help us to protect this treasure for our grandchildren in the crowded world of the future.
With the potential for drilling threatening the future of our last wild lands, now is the time to explore.
- Legend
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PrintAlaska Rafting & Arctic Expeditions
Where the wild things are. Some of the world's most remote, untouched rivers, big land, big waters and our biggest adventures - Alaska rafting and Canadian Arctic rafting expeditions.
Do you know what it sounds like as your boots crunch across a glacier? Have you ever spent time in a territory utterly untouched by human development? Have you been stunned into silence by staggering beauty? Have you wondered what it must be like to walk among a herd of thousands of caribou?
Shakespeare's assertion that "Man is the measure of all things" could not have been made by anyone who has spent time in the North. In this land, man is humbled by the sheer mythic proportions of the landscape. The rivers and the vastness of space were made for Titans to roam and explore; the towering mountains were merely their thrones.
An O.A.R.S. rafting trip in Alaska or the Arctic is an adventure in time travel, taking you back to an era before cell phones, cars, or people, where nature resides in delicate balance. Join us for an inspirational journey along the rugged and remote Tatshenshini River in Alaska as it flows from the Yukon Territories through British Columbia to Alaska, or venture north to the land of the midnight sun where bear, wolves, musk ox and vast herds of caribou roam the tundra along Canada's Firth River.
Alaska and the Canadian Arctic are home to generations of wildlife of the most majestic quality, and the land has provided residence for the Native American tribes of the Athabascans, the Tlingits and much later, the Eskimos and Aleuts. The Tatshenshini River corridor in Alaska is host to grizzly and black bear, wolves, moose, bald and golden eagles, osprey, peregrine and gyr falcons, as well as the highest peak in the Saint Elias Mountains, Alaska's 15,325 ft. Mount Fairweather.
Canada's Firth River is our most remote river rafting trip. The Firth River corridor features barren mountain slopes and ridges that are accessible from riverside camps. Easily gained ridges afford excellent views of the river valley and British Mountains. Above the Arctic Circle, the sun does not set in the summer months and allows endless opportunities for hikes, photography, and fishing. Although we cannot guarantee cooperation with wildlife, we plan our departures to coincide with the migration of the Porcupine caribou herd and prime Arctic char and grayling runs.
THE FACTS:
At over 150 miles in length, the Tatshenshini River is surrounded by a system of international parks —British Columbia's Tatshenshini Wilderness Preserve, the Yukon's Kluane National Park and Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. "The Tat" is therefore the largest preserved river system in the world. It also springs from a collection of sources in a glacial region that extends from the northwest corner of B.C. into the Yukon and Alaska —the largest non-polar ice cap in the world.
