Peter Knowles

Peter Knowles was on one of the early Grand Canyon Kayaking Trips in 1973 and was run over by a 10m motorised raft on one of the large rapids. This near drowning didn't put him off and it started a love of big white water and a lifetime paddling major rivers around the world.

He first travelled to Nepal and the Himalayas in 1983 and then fell in love with the country. Since then he has paddled and explored almost all the major rivers of the Himalayas – from the Afghan border to the mighty Brahmaputra and probably more than anyone else alive today. He has led over 40 trips and expeditions and made many first descents in Nepal, Pakistan, India, Tibet and Bhutan.

He has appeared numerous times in films and television and is a Life Fellow of Britain’s Royal Geog-raphical Society.

He wrote the first edition of White Water Nepal in 1991 and then founded Rivers Publishing. He now tries to stay warm and dry sitting in front of a computer, writing about rivers - but friends keep dragging him off to some exotic river to get cold, wet and scared yet again!