Mick Hopkinson (UK)

Mick Hopkinson began his whitewater career with ten years of training for slalom competition, developing and honing his technical skills before completing benchmark first descents of the most difficult stretches in the world.

Following in the British expeditionary mountaineering model, Mick Hopkinson along with a small team including fellow Brit Mike Jones, spent seven years exploring and making first descents of the most technical runs in the Alps before moving onto the Himalayas.

Their first descents of the most technical sections of the Inn and Oetz rivers, catalogued as Class VII in German guidebooks, became the benchmarks for all that followed. Their documented first descent of more than 200 miles of the Blue Nile in 1972 (two years before Richard Bangs raft descent) included 60 miles of Class V rapids. The Dudh Kosi first descent was chronicled in Dudh Kosi: Relentless River of Everest, an award-winning film at the Banff Film Festival.

Hopkinson was also a member of the Karakorum expedition (Braldu in Pakistan) where fellow team member Mike Jones lost his life, the Karnali expedition (Nepal), and the “Taming the Lion” team which made first descents of many of the huge rapids on the Indus. In the 1990’s, he explored rivers in New Zealand and Canada making numerous first descents. Hopkinson continues exploring unrunnable stretches of rivers as well as teaching and guiding for his company.

He set up the New Zealand Outdoor Instructors Association in 1987, established the New Zealand Kayak School, founded Castle Hill Outdoor Centre in 1985, helped to set up New Zealand Canoeing Association kayak instruction and river rescue courses and he has served as the director of the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre. In 2019 he was made Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to kayaking and outdoor education.