THE LAST RIVER | Todd Balf

Wick Walker, a decorated Special Forces military officer, was the overall leader of the Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges Expedition team. Named to the U.S. Olympic team in 1972, he retired from competitive paddling after the Munich Games. In the years preceding the Tsangpo Expedition, he had been running a small thoroughbred breeding program at his farm in western Pennsylvania and "doing the occasional odd job for the Pentagon" (specifics unavailable). Age at time of expedition: 51.

Tom McEwan, Wick Walker's old friend and kayaking partner, was the river leader of the Tsangpo Expedition team. It was Tom who set his sights on the Tsangpo as the whitewater kayaker's Holy Grail. As Wick masterminded the trip's logistical and political considerations, Tom took charge of the whitewater action itself. He has been running whitewater training camps and leading river trips for some 25 years. Separated from his wife at the time of the expedition, he was eager to return to river running with his old friend. Age at time of expedition: 51.

Doug Gordon was the lead paddler on the trip. Doug was the team's youngest member and unquestionably its best. Strikingly handsome in a sun-weathered, wind-flushed way, he had made the U.S. national whitewater slalom team every year between 1981 and 1987. He retired from competitive paddling after meeting his wife, Connie, and pursued a brilliant career in the field of chemistry, keeping his paddling skills sharp on trips with Jamie McEwan. Doug arrived late at the team's predeparture preparations, having just gotten back from an overseas conference and spending a few extra precious hours with Connie and his pre-school age sons, Tyler and Bryce. Age at time of expedition: 41.

Jamie McEwan is Tom's younger brother and 2nd lead paddler of the expedition. On his reunions with Tom, the former Ivy League wrestlers are likely to lower themselves into a ready crouch and toss each other around with playful but alarming exuberance. At 19, as an obscure member of the American paddling team at the Munich Olympics, he had overcome heavily favored competition to win a bronze medalóthe first American to do so. Age at time of expedition: 45

Roger Zbel, big-boned, rosy-cheeked, his face covered in a flowing orange-blonde beard, looked more like Shakespeare's Falstaff than an Olympic class athlete (which he was). A legendary Appalachian paddler, he has long wanted to go on one of the McEwan/Walker expeditionary trips, but had never before been asked. He is selected when other potential members balk at the extreme danger. In the water he is as competitive as any of the others, but throughout the trip he is the voice of caution. Weeks before the team's departure, he e-mailed Tom McEwan asking, "Hey, Tom, this isn't gonna be some kind of suicide mission is it?" Age at time of expedition: 44.