Document text
0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Since You Asked: Pedestrians can be cited for carelessness ... Wolf once believed to be dead shows up near Crater Lake ... One of Oregon's two health insurance co-ops says it will shut down ... Since You Asked: Pedestrians can be cited for carelessness ... Wolf once believed to be dead shows up near Crater Lake ... One of Oregon's two health insurance co-ops says it will shut down ... Paddling the globe Extreme kayaker Chris Korbulic is earning a worldwide reputation for his exploits Comment By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier MailTribune.com By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted May. 3, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted May. 3, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Extreme kayaker Chris Korbulic rips off his destinations in the last two years — Russia, New Guinea, Patagonia, Norway, Nepal, Labrador — like running down a grocery list. It's becoming routine for Korbulic to plunge off waterfalls in far-flung, remote outposts, etching his place in the pantheon of the world's top thrill-seekers. The 2004 Grants Pass High School graduate is a full-time extreme kayaker, earning a living from sponsors that include clothing giant Eddie Bauer, and from six years of appearing on Brazilian adventure television show "Kaiak." He and kayak partner Ben Stookesberry recently were named two of the 50 most adventurous men by Men's Journal magazine. Korbulic isn't particularly impressed by the honor. "I don't put a lot of weight on being included in a random list by a magazine I don't read, but it's cool," the 28-year-old Korbulic said. "I looked through the list. They have some pretty impressive people in there." (To view the list, see www.mensjournal.com/adventure/the-50-most-adventurous-men ) Korbulic was visiting his folks, Paul and Mary, over the weekend at their home near Rogue River. The Men's Journal article touches on Korbulic's grim experience in 2010 losing fellow paddler Hendri Coetzee to a crocodile, and mentions him kayaking 400 miles north of Norway in glacial ice in 2013. "There were definitely points where we were out of our element. There were points where we encountered polar bears, armed with only a WWII-era rifle," he told the magazine. Really? Glacial kayaking? "We were kayaking off of glacial waterfalls ... waterfalls flowing off of ice," he said. His most recent adventure with compatriots Stookesberry and Pedro Oliva included a quest to tame Iguazu Falls on the Brazilian-Argentine border, a Victoria Falls look-alike at over 200 feet high. "It's a national park with a lot of bureaucracy," Korbulic said. "They were really close to letting us go over part of the falls, but in the end they didn't. It's an ongoing quest to let us in there." They headed south to the remote Patagonian region of Argentina and Chile, making four first descents, along with paddling some well known rivers. Their goal of doing the first descent on a remote Patagonian river also ended in some disappointment when after a five-day walk the river was flooding. "It was just a horrific gorge situation, vertical walls all the way through," he said. "The river went from this beautiful blue, glacier-fed water to brown, raging and flooding." He started 2014 running one of the forks of the Tsang-Po, a tributary of the mighty Brahmaputra, which flows out of Tibet. In the summer of 2014, Korbulic took a solo trip to the remote Altai region of Russia, near the borders with Mongolia, and Kazakhtstan, smack dab in the middle of Asia. He mingled with Mongols, whom he called laid-back, and Russians who didn't take to his occasionally sarcastic humor. "That was one of the only places on my trip that was legitimately more difficult because of the language barrier," he said. From there he journeyed to northern Quebec and Labrador, doing a first descent on the Navchak River, in a harsh land of rock, lichen and mushrooms. "There's no trees, nothing growing over ankle height," he said. The kayakers did two or three other rivers, paddling to the ocean, then hiking for days back over the mountains to start the next one. The 2013 itinerary started out with his highest-ever waterfall jump, 120-foot Rainbow Falls on the Big Island of Hawaii. The trio later did a first descent on the island of New Guinea, and helped guide an expedition at Murchison Falls on the Nile in Uganda. Some of his goals for 2015 and 2016? To conquer a river on the only continent he hasn't paddled yet — Antarctica. "That's our big goal, paddling the seventh continent." By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier MailTribune.com By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted May. 3, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... Business Name address Location, ST | website.com Find Southern Oregon Attractions Bars Restaurants Beauty Salons Entertainment Doctors Medical Specialists Contractors Education Lawn Services Lawyers Shopping Travel Tanning Used Cars Wedding Services ▼ Add your business here + Events Calendar Connect with MailTribune.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services Home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Announcements Obituaries Story ideas Since you asked Alerts Email Alerts RSS Feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Propel Marketing Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Mobile Site Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Your privacy is important, read our privacy policy. © Copyright 2015 Local Media Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Local Media Group Publications Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted. MailTribune.com | P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501