Since the birth of the modern packraft in the 1980s, these small inflatable boats that fold into a backpack have opened up a range of terrain for wilderness travelers. What began as an Alaskan niche, with adventure racers and trekkers strapping rafts to backpacks, has grown into a global adventure sport.
The early, more cumbersome boats with limited manoeuvrability have evolved into rafts capable of running class five rapids and cruising through remote tidal fiords. You can now see packrafters on rivers and open water from Patagonia to Japan. But as the sport expands, the number of accidents and fatalities has inevitably grown.
Author of the seminal The Packraft Handbook and Alaskan native, Luc Mehl, has been keeping a list of packrafting fatalities. The entries stretch back to the 1990s, when deaths were almost entirely clustered in Alaska. Now, they scatter across continents.
Packrafting educator Luc Mehl near his Anchorage home. Photo: Bill Roth
The numbers
In the past few months alone, three paddlers have drowned on three continents: a 25-year-old in the French Alps who was navigating a picturesque slot canyon; a 35-year-old in Colorado who capsized in Class III+ water and never resurfaced; and a 69-year-old in Japan, an experienced boater paddling alone on a whitewater course, who became trapped in a recirculating water feature known as a “hole.”
Gorges de Tines, a picturesque slot canyon where a French packrafter died this summer. Photo: Visorando.com
Mehl’s database records 32 known packrafting fatalities, all involving men (where sex was known) between the ages of 25 and 79. These incidents have occurred across the globe, including in the French Alps, the United States (Colorado), Japan, Australia (two separate rivers in Western Australia), Chile, New Zealand (two separate incidents), the Sweden–Norway border, Russia’s Tosna River, Taiwan, and British Columbia, Canada.
Recent years, particularly 2024 and 2025, have seen an uptick in cases.
Martin Rinke (63), an experienced boater, fell out of his boat in the Lion’s Head section of the Matanuska River, Alaska. Photo: Thingstolucat.com
Common themes
According to Mehl’s list, a handful of recurring patterns stand out. The most common is separation, with paddlers losing contact with their boat or their partners. Whether caused by strong currents, high water, wind, or inexperience, this scenario appears in the majority of cases and often proves deadly.
Going out alone is another frequent factor: at least fourteen deaths involved solo paddlers. One entry notes simply that the paddler was “effectively solo,” underlining how isolation magnifies the risks.
Equipment issues and inadequate protective gear appear to contribute to around a third of fatalities. Some paddlers set out without enough (or ill-fitting) safety gear, such as not wearing a personal flotation device or drysuit. In Taiwan, one victim “removed his life vest during a swim” and never resurfaced. In British Columbia, another attempted a whitewater run in a packraft “not intended for whitewater,” a decision that proved fatal.
Paddling solo increases risk. Photo: Shutterstock
Cold water and entanglement
Cold water has also played a major role, contributing to ten deaths. Some victims suffered cardiac arrest or hypothermia after immersion. Cold water was related to fatalities in Alaska’s glacial rivers, Russia’s Tosna River, and during open crossings in Greenland and Argentina.
Entrapment or entanglement hazards also figure, with multiple cases linked to paddlers being caught in locations where the river left no easy escape. These include foot entrapments, undercut rocks, and recirculating hydraulics or “holes.” Paddle leashes also created fatal tangles in Russia and Japan.
Surprisingly, not all packrafters wear life vests. Photo: Shutterstock
Medical events unrelated to drowning are rare but not absent. In Chile, a 40-year-old man died suddenly of a heart attack while on the Río Ñuble river. Weather has played its part as well, with strong winds leading to separation from the raft, presumably due to waves causing a capsize.
Finally, one Australian case on the Colo River highlights the danger of pinning, where Mehl suggests the victim may have been pinned against a rock.
A packrafter on class four whitewater. Photo: Tristan Burnham
Preventive strategies
Although Mehl’s database is informal and relies on inferences drawn from public reports and personal communications, it offers valuable insight into the factors that most often lead to packrafting tragedy. Writing on his website, Mehl suggests there is “a concerted effort to efficiently develop a ‘culture of safety’ for packrafters in the hopes that we can skip the history of incidents that our peers in other water crafts have experienced.”
The lessons that emerge are clear. Packrafters are likely to be safer when they travel with others, wear proper protective gear such as a personal floatation device, helmet, and drysuit, and take the time to learn about water dynamics, hazards, and self-rescue techniques. Taken together, Mehl’s work and the patterns he identifies offer not only a sobering record of past accidents but also a steer on how to keep the sport safer as it continues to grow.
