Atop Avachinsky Volcano – the mind it did blow!

// In case you’re wondering… I’ll be flip-flopping to-and-fro between Easter Island and Kamchatka-2025 posts in the coming weeks: just so things don’t get samey :-) //

In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (Kamchatka’s main city), my fellow travelers opined thus: “Where else can you walk out onto your balcony of a morning with a cup of coffee, and see three volcanoes right in front of you?” And I have to agree: three stratovolcanoes from one balcony of an apartment/hotel – probably only in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka. Two volcanoes: maybe on the outskirts of Seattle; but three at once? I’ve never seen that except here. But wait… on a clear day you might just manage to see four volcanoes (each one: massive)!

These three four volcanoes are:

1. The perfectly shaped cone of Koryaksky. Its height is so easy to remember: 3456 meters above sea-level. Yes – Mother Nature having a little fun there )
2. Avachinsky (aka Avacha – not to be confused with the river). Its height is ~2741 meters (the precise figure differs depending on the source)
3. Kozelsky, just over two kilometers tall. It makes up the view the people of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky get to enjoy daily
4. Aag Volcano, but it’s normally invisible (too far)

Well, well. After those rapturous words about these three or four volcanos, I’ve actually… zero photos taken from a balcony to back the rapture up with! Why? This year we didn’t spend even a single day in “the City” (how locals refer to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky) – nor did we plan to. But we did still manage to check out these “home volcanoes” – only, like this ->

Avacha: a symmetrical, contemplative structure:

It’s especially striking viewing it from the side:

I’d been to its summit before – back in August 2008. The weather was just awful though (so bad I even had ice form on my left cheek) ->

It was just hellish weather, and everything was all frozen over too:

Like I say, Avacha rises a little over 2700m, while you start the ascent at about 1000m above sea-level – meaning you need to climb about 1700m, then get back down again. For desk jockeys, those altitudes might sound real tough; for us – no bother!

Wait, what was I talking about? Ah, yes: this time we didn’t climb Avacha, but we did get to the top of it: we were dropped off there from a chopper. And it couldn’t have been more awesome! ->

Once we were dropped off the helicopter flew down and landed at the base of the volcano. Then we had an hour-and-a-half or so to walk around the crater. Handily there’s even a well-trodden path since it’s a rather popular spot:

The crater is bunged up with a lava cap – the result of the eruption of 1991:

The sulfur isn’t just photogenic – it… stinks to high heaven and makes you cough! Oh my ghastly!

A super stroll…

I do love walking around volcanic craters and calderas (which we were to do more of shortly). Unfortunately, you can’t walk a full circle around Avacha’s crater since much of it is blocked off by impassable solidified lava flows, which, even 34 years after the eruption, are still smoking away! ->

Here’s the mentioned solidified lava:

And it’s covered with ice too, so straight away we gave up plans to clamber over it…

I mentioned it’s a popular spot… And lo and behold, suddenly – we met another group! Kind of early for climbers…

Turned out they were volcanologists and they’d also been dropped off by helicopter. They were here to work and would be staying on the volcano for several days doing research. And – talk about small world…: we knew one of them! We’d met by chance last year hiking around the summit of Koshelev Volcano!

If you look closely, there’s a small dot on the summit. That’s a local Kamchatka volcanologist who ran up from the base camp to call someone – cell coverage is only available up there :) ->

That was on the summit of Koshelev. And we bumped into him again on Avacha!

Some of DZ’s photos ->

That’s it for Avacha!

The best high-res pics from Kamchatka (fall, 2025) are here.