Colorado Whitewater 2026 Fall Dinner 

Join us at the Buffalo Rose in Golden on Thursday 10/29 for this year's Fall Dinner with two special guests John Armstrong (Adventure film maker) and Nancy Wiley (Expedition kayaker)

About the Director: John Armstrong  

John Armstrong is an award-winning cinematographer and filmmaker with a 35-year career capturing some of the world’s most extreme adventures and compelling unscripted television. His work spans both groundbreaking expedition documentaries and major reality competition series (think Survivor, The Amazing Race, and American Ninja Warrior).  

Armstrong’s cinematic achievements have earned him three Primetime Emmy Awards and four Sports Emmy Awards for Cinematography. His adventure films have also received top honors, including the Grand Prize at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival for Bashkaus: Hard Labor in Siberia and Best Documentary for Curtain of Ice.  

In recognition of his lifetime contributions to the field, Armstrong was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Unscripted Camera Operator by the Society of Camera Operators in 2025. His career and impact were further highlighted in a feature by Harvard Magazine, reflecting on his journey since graduating from Harvard in 1974.  

Through decades of work behind the lens, Armstrong has helped define the visual language of adventure storytelling—bringing audiences into some of the most remote, challenging, and inspiring places on Earth.

About the team member: Nancy Wiley

Nancy Wiley started kayaking at 13, after her father--who needed a boating buddy--tried to teach her how to roll. She was out of her boat before her head got wet, so dad sent her to Roger Paris’s Kayak School in Carbondale-–better idea.  She was hooked.

During her college years at Colorado University, she alpine ski raced in the winter, and summers were spent teaching kayaking and raft guiding for World of Whitewater in California and Sundance Kayak School in Oregon. This is where she realized that kayaking would be her life. After college she started a kayak school and her father suggested they also open a retail store and a mail order business. Four Corners Riversports was born.

In 1984 after college graduation, and before getting to work, Nancy went to Chile to kayak with two women, traveling in a small Suzuki minivan. They had very little beta, as rivers were just starting to be explored in Chile. This trip piqued an interest in paddling adventures and exploration.

The next 18 years were full-on paddling (or mostly working!): running and managing the store and kayak school; self-publishing the mail order catalog (every year); hosting whitewater events in Durango, including the Champion International Whitewater Races, U.S. Junior Slalom Team Trials, Animas River Days, and Open Canoe Nationals.  Nancy feels that her greatest legacy is having started the kids paddling school that is still in operation today.

During these years Nancy was invited to participate in the second expedition and filming of the Paucartambo River in Peru, a Mutual of Omaha kayak and raft expedition on the Boh River in Kalimantan, Indonesia, Project Raft in Costa Rica, kayaking with filmmaker Roger Brown in Sulawesi, and a Survival of the Fittest competition, where against all odds, she finished first.

After selling Four Corners River Sports in 1998, Lars Holbek decided Nancy finally had time for a relationship. He moved to southwest Colorado and Nancy and Lars built a passive solar off-grid adobe house. While Nancy finished the house by building cabinets and concrete countertops, Lars converted their diesel vehicles to run on vegetable oil. Of course, they took time to kayak, bike, ski, and walk in the mountains with their dog Boojie.

About the Movie

Step into one of the most daring river expeditions ever captured on film.  Paucartambo: The Rest of the River follows a team of legendary American kayakers on a perilous 19-day descent of Peru’s remote and unmapped Paucartambo River—plunging 13,000 feet from the Andes to the Amazon Basin in what was, at the time, the greatest sustained vertical drop ever achieved in kayaking history.  

Filmed in 1986 and hailed as one of the earliest expedition kayaking documentaries, this award-winning film (including the People’s Choice Award at the Banff Mountain Film Festival) goes far beyond adrenaline. It captures the raw reality of expedition life—grueling portages, unrelenting rapids, and the ever-present risk of isolation where rescue is impossible. Along the way, the team encounters the Quechua people, offering a rare and human glimpse into life along this powerful river.  

Now beautifully restored from its original 16mm film to stunning 4K, this new version reveals breathtaking detail and depth never before seen, paired with a rich, immersive soundscape crafted specifically for the journey.

Date: Thursday, October 29, 2026

Time: 5:00pm-9:00pm

Location: 

Buffalo Rose

Cost

CW Members: $10 

Non-CW Members: $25 

A cash bar will be available for those who want to purchase alcohol.

Evening Agenda

5:00 - 6:00 Check-in and Reception

6:00 - 7:00 Dinner

7:00 - 7:30 Club Business & Elections

7:30 - 8:30 Introduction and viewing of the film

8:30 - 9:00 Q&A with Nancy and John about adventure film making

Please note

• Tickets must be purchased in advance.
• Smoking or vaping of any kind is not allowed at The Rose. The City of Golden also has a Smoke-Free Ordinance which does not allow for smoking on downtown sidewalks.
• Pets are not allowed.

This event is heavily subsidized and there will be no refunds. 

Please let us know if you register and later find out you are unable to attend so that the club can adjust the amount of food being purchased.