October 17, 2024
Kamchatka-2024 – Part 1: The big-three volcanoes of the Klyuchevsky group.
Sorry for taking so long to post about my Kamchatka 2024 trip! My business travel schedule has been crazy lately. Almost immediately after Kamchatka (I didn’t even have time to catch my breath!) I set off for a business tour of Colombia, followed by Chile and China, and now I’m at Kazan Digital Week. Sometimes my travels can really throw me around like a rag doll.
But I haven’t forgotten about Kamchatka 2024! I’ve sorted and processed my photos, and had my fellow travelers do the same :). Now I’m as ready as I’ll ever be to share how it went.
Let’s start in the north with the Klyuchevsky group of volcanos. It comprises 14 volcanoes, but the big three are Bezymianny, Kamen, and Klyuchevskaya Sopka. Here they are all together; Bezymianny is the smoking one. A little further back is the sharp cone of Kamen, and flanking it is Klyuchevskaya Sopka.
Above is a shot of the big three from the south (from a helicopter), but in good weather they look just as incredible from the other sides too. Here’s a look from the east:
(photo from 2021, from the ground)
This is what the supreme leader of the Kamchatkan volcanic kingdom, Klyuchevskaya Sopka (around 4800 meters high, depending on eruptions) looked like from the air at the end of July 2024:
The same volcano in 2021:
Another angle from the direction of the Volcanologist Camp where the absolutely crazy ascent to the top of Klyuchevskaya Sopka begins:
Beautiful – yes; but would I ever want to climb it? Not in a million years…
To climb this peak is truly to gamble with your life. It’s an active volcano that sometimes starts shaking and heats up regularly from the inside. So even if you’re in great shape, you’ve prepped well for an ascent, and you’ve acclimatized carefully (remember – the altitude is 4800m), it’s still a very risky endeavor. If you manage to scramble to the very top without falling off the steep slopes and snowfields, or getting hit on the head by falling boulders (the volcano is alive and warm!) – all the while trudging through impenetrable fog (with heavy winds), then you’re still in for the same steep slopes, snowfields, and rock slides on the way back down.
In short – I wouldn’t recommend it. A lot of folks have conquered Klyuchevskaya Sopka, but many have died trying too…
Klyuchevskaya Sopka is in the foreground of the previous photo, and behind it is Kamen. Further back (and lower down) is the smoking Bezymianny, and Tolbachik is in the distance.
Here are Klyuchevskaya and Kamen up close:
I can’t resist sharing another photo from my archive and a link to a whole series from my trip to Kamchatka in 2021:
So, about the volcanic trinity: Klyuchevskaya Sopka, Kamen and Bezymianny. I’ve talked about and shown the first, but Kamen has eluded me entirely for as long as I’ve been coming here. I really want to fly around and check it out from all angles. It’s an old extinct volcano with a beautiful kilometer-high cliff on the eastern side. Unfortunately, in this year our plans were dashed by the unexpected eruption of nearby Bezymianny.
Bezymianny really is in a league of its own. It’s a very active and unusual volcano that used to look like any other dormant volcano – like a kind of uneven pyramid. But in 1956, it just up and exploded with everything it had! The blast was so powerful it tore off about a third (maybe or a quarter) of its cone (check out a previous post for more details and pictures). Afterward, what remained of the volcano started to rebuild itself through a cycle of eruptions. Today there’s a kind of collar on the volcano’s cone left over from that very explosion in the middle of which a new volcanic cone is growing – fast. Here are some photos from the same angle:
2010:
2021:
At this rate, Bezymianny will be turning back into a normal cone shape in our lifetime… just to blow up again! So if you’re offered free land around this area… Take it! And give it to someone you don’t like :)
Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of Bezymianny from this trip because it was so active that air travel in the area was prohibited :(. But it’s still crazy beautiful. Since I wasn’t able to see it up close this time, here are some pictures from previous trips:
The view from a river named Dry Khapitsa. Judging by the depth of the ravine, mudslides here must be pretty common ->
A couple of meditative photos:
Check out what the sunsets look like here! ->
No folks – this isn’t Photoshop; it’s the shadow from the volcano plus the smoke from the eruption.
This time we landed the chopper somewhere completely new for us: Perevalny Crater. It’s an inconspicuous and essentially insignificant place. The crater’s diameter is only around 200 meters, and the height above the rest of the ground is ridiculous – maybe just 30-50 meters.
But the view of the Klyuchevskaya volcanoes it offers is one of a kind:
They’ve started installing these here cabins in the higher reaches around Kamchatka to save lives during weather emergencies:
Next to it there’s a strange shed… What could be inside? Hmm, not firewood; only… snow! I guess some glaciologists are keeping it safe here for analysis.
An amazing view of the volcanoes!
Oh – I can’t pass up on the chance to once again recommend Volcanoes Await helicopters: there’s no better way to fly around the peninsula! :) ->
To be continued!…
