Ian MacLellan: The Wild Moisie River

When it comes to outdoor adventure, Portland, Maine-based commercial and editorial photographer Ian MacLellan is about as extreme as they come. (Think ‘hanging off the corner of an untouched cliff over a river that’s only accessible by floatplane.’)

This was part of a recent adventure along the wild Moisie River in Quebec, Canada— the result of one of the Huckberry Explorer’s Grants that Ian received. The grant encompassed $1,000 and a full complement of gear from various brands.

After his Moisie River adventure, Ian wrote an article that was recently published on Huckberry, outlining the craziness of his journey. It’s quite the suspenseful story, including everything from dropping his camera off the edge of a cliff to getting tossed from his canoe by the Moisie rapids and losing his paddle in the meantime (making a total of three lost or broken paddles over the course of the trip). For a short time, Ian wondered if he would even survive.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

My harness is starting to itch and the camera on my neck is weighing on me. We are eleven days into a climbing expedition on the Moisie River and things are getting tense. Mikey Sallade is climbing through scrubby trees above, Mike Veazey (referred to as “VZ” hereafter) is belaying him, and Ri Fahnestock is anchored a few feet below me, waiting.

From my perch, I look out over the river 300 feet below and am overwhelmed by the sweeping immensity of the Quebec landscape. I’ve been having nightmares about the rapids we’ll face in our canoes.

Each morning we commute upriver and build trails to the cliff faces. On untouched terrain, climbing easily falls to the wayside. Garden snips and limb saws are more useful than chalkbags and brushes. We spend hours ripping off man-sized mats of moss and hurling boulders off of the routes, in hopes that we find climbs worth bragging about.

Let us help you Find Photographers, source Stock Photography,
and Produce Your Shoot — or just reach out to hear more!