The Russian peninsula of Kamchatka –snowbound and remote on the opposite side of the Pacific to B.C.'s Coast Mountains –is not the kind of place that makes the news very often. But it did so recently when one of its many volcanoes, Klyuchevskoi, roared into life throwing rocks 300 metres into the air and drooling molten lava down its slopes.
Klyuchevskoi lies north of Kamchatka's prime heli-skiing terrain, in the middle of one of the most volcanically active regions on Earth – in fact, one of the peaks I skied on a recent visit, 3,456-metre Koryakski, erupted a few months ago, creating a 4,000-metre ash plume.
Kamchatka is also a World Heritage site, described by UNESCO as being of “exceptional natural beauty and diversity” – and for skiers, a place where the experience is so raw, exciting and elemental, it will stay with you for the rest of your life.
The big, bright orange Mi-8 helicopters that carry you to the summits of these primeval peaks are as basic as air travel gets – bench seats, no seatbelts, and porthole-style windows that you can actually open as you fly along –you're pumped full of adrenalin before you even start.
We were dropped on the summit of an unnamed peak, and after the blizzard of powder snow blasted skyward by the chopper's huge rotors finally cleared, we absorbed the view: To the east and far below, the twinkling blue water of the Pacific rolled into black-sand beaches; in every other direction, ranks of snow-plastered mountains and volcanoes – many with banners of steam drifting from their summits – reached for the sky; and in the near distance, across a gleaming white snowfield, the steaming crater of 2,323-metre Mutnovski Volcano, which last erupted in 2001. This is where we would be skiing – to the very edge of the crater.
Kamchatka is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world.
To reach it, we skied down steep, wide-open slopes of windblown powder before skidding to a halt beneath the lip of this void in the Earth's surface. The stench of sulphur and hydrogen sulphide fills the air, and Marco, our French mountain guide, advises us against spending more than a few minutes at the crater's edge –the atmosphere is poisonous.
All the same, it's impossible to resist the opportunity to unclip from my skis, scrabble 20 metres up the rubble and ash of the crater's side and gaze down into the bowels of the Earth.
The scalding-hot steam rising from the depths has stained the inner walls toxic shades of sulphur yellow, chromium green and metallic red, and the volcano hisses like a gigantic chemical plant. It's an unforgettable sight – and I suddenly understood what the organizer of the trip, James Morland of heli-ski specialists Elemental Adventure, meant when he spoke of Kamchatka on the long flight from Moscow. “The scenery is like nothing on Earth, and at times it's so dramatic that it's almost impossible to take it all in. It's tough skiing, and we make no attempt to hide that from clients, but it's also the most unique heli-ski experience available.”
Kamchatka has a wild and windy climate and, as a result, snow conditions will vary quite considerably on some runs. As another of our guides, Nikolay Veselovskiy, pointed out, “This is adventure skiing rather than powder skiing – you'll get plenty of powder, but you should be prepared for all conditions.”
