Dr. Walt Blackadar became known as a kayaking pioneer/explorer in 1971 when he paddled Turn Back Canyon on the Alsek River in British Columbia. A Sports Illustrated article featuring this solo run soon followed. 

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"Every so often in a sport, an individual comes along and changes things forever. In whitewater sport that person is Walt Blackadar. Walt's solo descent on the formidable Turn Back Canyon on the Alsek River in 1971 was so far ahead of its time that it is not only significant in terms of whitewater history, but it is significant in the history of adventure and exploration. Symbolically the Alsek assumes a historical place, a beginning of a new age of the sport built around the powerful story about a 49 year old individual with a bold dream. The psychological barrier had been broken, and a new array of opportunities was possible." (Ron Watters, Never Turn Back, Pocatello, Idaho: The Great Rift Press, 1994)

 

Walt was inducted into the International Whitewater Hall of Fame in 2007 and the American Canoe Association Paddlesports Hall of Fame in 2011. ​