RUS.ADVENTURE | Getting to and around

Wild life Activities Places Zones Getting to and around Seasons Tours

In Kamchatka long approaches are inevitable if you want to get to really wild places (helicopter is fast but depends a lot on weather). Being often awkward and tiring, these approaches in fact help greatly to preserve the patches of true wilderness from being flooded by tourist traffic. The latter has already happened to the comfortably accessible to RVs parts of Alaska. "Awkward" approaches mean saved wilderness. When thinking about a trip to some Russian faraway place please keep in mind one sure thing: long and dusty drives will be forgotten, the pristine wild nature will stay in your memory for years. Just ask people who have been there (see "Our guests speaking").

Geographers call Kamchatka a "peninsula", the residents know they are islanders, living on the biggest and most distant island of Russia. The only way to reach Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky from the mainland is by plane or ship. And the only direction in which you can leave Kamchatka by land is northwards, crossing the wild and desolate Koryaksky mountains towards Chukotka, a region even more remote than Kamchatka itself.

The only road going north from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky reaches the small town of Kozyrevsk (7–8 hours), and from there to get to any volcano in the Kluychevskoi Group you will have either to walk for a couple of days or drive for a couple of hours in an expedition 4WD truck. Further up along the main road the town of Klyuchi (9–10 hours) will be the starting point for a Klyuchevskoi climb from the north (after a two days' walk-in of course).

The southernmost parts of Kamchatka are only accessible with the help of a helicopter, thus leaving only the relatively small area around Petropavlovsk and Elizovo for shortish approaches, rather fast treks and climbs of the "backyard" volcanoes: Avachinsky, Koryaksky and Vilyuchinsky.

Even though 90 percent of Kamchatka is wilderness, the place has been a Mecca for Soviet tourists for several decades, so the approach routes to all key points are well known and are not a problem for the local operators. Converted 4WD heavy trucks are normally used. Helicopter is faster but much more expensive and is too dependent on weather conditions.

Roads

In Kamchatka the metaled road is a luxury that only the south can boast of but, even in the south, to get to the foot of any volcano you travel in an expedition truck. The only artery linking the south with the northernmost outpost of civilization, the small town of Ust-Kamchatsk (northeast of Klyuchevskoi, on the Pacific coast), is a gravel road, long, dusty and dreary. In bad weather it will be deserted. All the other roads here are only for tractors, expedition trucks and mountain bikes.

Transport

Expedition trucks and helicopters are used as the primary means of approach transport. To the southern group of volcanoes and to Geyser Valley they fly from Elizovo, to Klyuchevskoi – from Esso or Kozyrevsk. If it were not for its dependence on the weather, helicopter would be by far more preferable, sparing you long truck drives. An expedition truck is a heavy army four-wheel drive truck with a bus cabin instead of a body. It can go practically everywhere, except thick taiga and marshes.

In winter a skidoo can easily tug 2–3 skiers and carry their rucksacks. With this machine (the powerful Russian "Buran", not the "Yamaha"), fantastic ski-touring routes, lightning fast and quite audacious, can be arranged. High tundras and volcanic plateaux are a paradise for mountain bikers, provided they have good maps and navigating skills. For instance, by bike you can get from Kozyrevsk to the hut under the Bezymyany volcano in the center of the Klyuchevskoi Group.