Unique heli-ski safari: Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands

The main plan of the trip is a trip to the south of Kamchatka and riding from the volcanoes of the Kuril Islands. Along the way, descents from volcanoes are possible: Mutnovsky (2,322 m), Asacha (1,910 m), Opala (2,475 m), Ilyinsky (1,577 m).

Upon returning from the Kuril Islands, a stop is planned in the tent camp and an overnight stay overlooking the erupting Cambal volcano. Further, after a short rest at the mountain-sports base “Snow Valley”, you will be waited by a small snowmobile expedition, the completion of which will be arrival to Russkaya Bay and a picturesque sea passage to the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

The name of the island of Onekotan originated from Ainu: Onne kotan, where onne is “old, big,” kotan “village, town”, that is, originally referred only to the village on the island. The area is 425 km ². On the island there are active volcanoes located in the calderas of the more ancient volcanoes: Krenitsyn (1324 meters) in the caldera of Tao-Rusyr in the southern part and Nemo (1019 meters) in the northern part.

The island is almost entirely overgrown with cedar stlant and alder-cedar woodland with a height of trees up to 2-4 meters. In the summer-autumn period, an abundance of berries ripens on the island: crawberry, blueberry, cloudberry. The largest beasts on the island are foxes, but there is also a lot of various small rodents. Seals and sea lions frolic on the coast.

The Krenitsyn volcano is the biggest volcano in a volcano on the globe. The volcano is surrounded by the deepest freshwater lake on the Russian islands. The maximum depth, which was fixed by scientists, was 264 meters. This is a measured value, but, apparently, is not the limit for Lake Koltsevoy. The diameter of the giant caldera bowl is more than 7 kilometers, the height of its walls above the lake level reaches 500 meters.

The volcano Ksudach (1079m) is located in the southern part of Kamchatka. It is a truncated cone with a base of 18 * 22km, crowned by a vast caldera 7 * 9km, which in turn consists of smaller calderas and volcanic structures of different ages. In the northern part there is a young cone Stubel, height of 77 m. In the crater of Stubel there is the same lake. Small lakes are also found in the eastern and north-eastern parts of the volcano, one of which is called Kluchevoe Lake. Ksudach is famous for its unusually powerful eruption, which occurred in March 1907 from the cone of Stubel. Ash falls were of such magnitude that they could spread throughout Kamchatka, and in the West they reached the mainland coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Also, unprecedented destruction of vegetation was noted. The ancient forests of the stone birch near the volcano were completely destroyed. At present, fumarolic and hydrothermal activity is observed on the volcano, natural outcrops of thermal water are observed along the shores of the lakes Klyuchevoy and Shtyubel.