There is an innumerable number of mountains on earth. All the volcanoes are known to scientists and counted. Some are active and you can go and take in that grand sight. The names of the beautiful few, high and snow-clad, are well known to lay public - Fujiyama, Ararat, Kilimanjaro and some others. Still, with all their irresistible aesthetic appeal, each of them is one and only feature of the landscape. In this respect Kamchatka Peninsula is a unique place. The volcanoes here, high, snow-clad and from time to time erupting are put into exceptionally scenic mounting: lower mountain groups and ranges with wide green valleys dividing them, wild taiga, fast and clear rivers, ocean coasts. The famous Geyser Valley which, taken apart, could easily make the tourist industry of a small country, is just one of many places of interest here. With only 439000 of population (1994) for such a large territory (1200km long, 450km wide), 359000 of them living in the town of Petropavlovsk, Yelizovo and Klyuchi, the place is really wild. Nonetheless, the peninsula has been a Mecca for Russian tourists for quite a long time, so the approach routes to all key points (especially in the south) are fairly developed. Converted four-wheel drive expedition vehicles are normally used for that. Helicopter is faster but much more expensive.

Thanks to some provocative inquiries, which came to me recently through the RISK, I have a feeling the idea to expand a bit and make my life more varied and interesting by visits to regions other than the Caucasus could be quite promising.

Last autumn there came a letter from the Royal Alpine Club of Holland (now, after merging with the other major club, - Nederlandse Klim- en Bergsport Vereniging, or NKBV) asking for some assistance. Their trek-leader, my good acquaintance from 1997 when I guided his group on a long trek in the Caucasus, for some time had been negotiating directly with some local operator about a trip in Kamchatka and was stopped by a fairly steep price. I happened to know another one there, and, working together, we managed in the end to come to the price that suited everyone.

The trip was open to anyone in Europe or America, provided you spoke reasonably good English and paid for the membership of the NKBV.

Two Britons joined the group, filling it up to 12 members (plus a trek-leader). It was not a leisurely walk, but a long and fairly strenuous, yet well spaced out with rest days, backpacking trek 25 days long. The longest period we had to carry our food-stuffs for was just 6 days. Only light-weight food was used.

Here are some general information, I hope interesting and useful, I have brought from there, several pictures to wet the budding interest of a keen and seasoned traveler and to please an arm-chair one, and a few selected personal impressions.

General, cool notes
Roads, Prices, Zones, Esso, Kronotsky Reserve

Trek, personal notes
Bears, Geysers Valley, Avachinsky volcano, People

It goes without saying I cannot be a specialist on every Russian place of interest, yet, knowing quite well our tricky market from inside on the one hand, and what the average Westerner means talking about a "good trip" on the other, I think I am in a position to kill two birds with one stone. First to bring down the price, which always will be higher for foreigner, contacting a Russian operator directly, than for me, then to make sure the local operator chosen for the task understands what the word "service" means and to demand and check it on the trip itself. All this for a reasonable commission. The strength of a chain is equal to the strength of its weakest link. Western people buying expensive tours in Russia and CIS from well reputed home companies do it on the assumption that the quality of the local operator will be equal to that of its western partner. My experience tells sometimes they are right, but not always. The insure the quality a good western company will send a trek-leader with their group, yet in many cases the language barrier will not allow him (or her) to have good control over the situation, and the operator's interpreter, being on its pay-roll, will not always stick to a fair play.

Yuri Kolomiets
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