Alaska

Alaska, Blackwaters, Diversity, Environmental Protection, National Parks, The Arctic / 07.09.2023

In the company of local fishing expert Brian Chou, members of our expedition team and I descended upon the river, perhaps more in comradery than the likelihood of landing such an elusive species. Here we were able to reminisce over our memories of catching norther pike and grayling on the Kobuk River in Alaska’s Gates of the Arctic National Park. On the day following the premiere screening of our documentary film Blackwaters: Brotherhood in Wild, it seemed only natural that we would find ourselves together in community once...

Alaska, Climate Change, Commentary, Denali, Destinations, Essays, National Geographic, National Parks, Public Land, The Arctic, Uncategorized, We are the Arctic / 24.07.2023

Just over 10 years since my first trip to Alaska’s Denali National Park, I stood near the Mountain Vista Trailhead searching through the clouds. I knew that somewhere in the distance stood a snow-covered peak whose summit stands as the highest point in North America. The horizon line loomed as a field of pale grey light behind a vast expanse of a deep green alpine tundra. The landscape was dotted with a few tall spruce trees scattered sporadically in a low-elevation taiga forest. Beautiful, but not what I...

#BlackLivesMatter, Adventure Activism, Alaska, American Rivers, Black Lives Matter, Climate Change, Commentary, Destinations, Diversity, Environmental Journalism, Environmental Protection, Fly Fishing, National Parks, On Assignment / 22.07.2022

This week in Alaska’s Gates of the Arctic National Park, I landed a two and half-foot Northern Pike, the biggest fish I’ve caught in my life. As a small group of anglers, all of African descent, our team on the BlackWaters Expedition was delivered by floatplane to a narrow beach on the banks of the Kobuk River. Led by Chad Brown, founder of the environmental engagement nonprofit Love Is King, this adventure into the least visited of all the national parks aimed to reimagine the face of Arctic...

#BlackLivesMatter, Adventure Film, Alaska, An American Ascent, Breaking News, Diversity, Film preview, Outdoors For All, The Adventure Gap / 02.07.2020

Thursday, July 9, 2020 will be the 56th Anniversary of Charles Madison Crenchaw’s historic summit of Denali. As the first Black person to reach the highest peak in North America this remarkable event is particularly significant because it occurred just seven days after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law. Crenchaw’s climb of Denali personified the dream described a year earlier by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington. Through his skills as an alpinist and his strength of will, Crenchaw ascended...

Alaska, Diversity, Film Review, Native Culture, Natives Outdoors, The Arctic / 27.02.2019

In 2017 the Trump administration opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. The development of this fragile ecosystem for energy extraction puts at risk the culture and livelihood of a community that has called the Alaskan wilderness home for millennia. The Gwitch’in People, who rely upon the unimpeded migration of the porcupine caribou herd, will likely witness not only the destruction of the habitat from which they derive a critical source of food, but also the natural environment that defines their ancestral heritage. Much like efforts...

Alaska, Environmental Journalism, Expedition Denali, National Parks / 10.05.2017

[caption id="attachment_2064288" align="alignright" width="689"] Randy Luskey, Mark Berry, Tyhree Moore and Mick Wang[/caption] [dropcap]Y[/dropcap]oung mountaineer Tyrhee Moore is heading back to Alaska for another attempt to summit the highest peak in North America, Denali! After an unsuccessful bid in 2013 he’s returning to climb with a small team of avid adventurers in hopes of encouraging youth across the nation to ascend the heights of their most ambitious aspirations. “It’s just really important to me that I show kids like me that anything is possible,” Tyrhee said just before his departure....