KAMCHATKA DISPATCH IV

An all-day, dirt-road bus ride north of Martha’s lies the remote military township of Kluchy.  From there we spent two big days Schlepping our rucks to base camp, at the confluence of Kluchevskoy and Kamen, the highest volcanoes in Kamchatka.  Unfortunately the conditions weren’t quite what we had hoped: consistent eruptions had plastered the place with ash, creating a maze of penitentes (among bullet-proof glacial ice features).  Fortunately we salvaged our ski mountaineering appetites with a classy route on a neighboring 4000m peak.  In fresh snow. 

Now planning a return trip to Vilyuchinsky to lay down a shred and explore hot springs (Vilyuchinsky is akin to Mt. Hood, but instead of Timberline there are lots of bears).

- Beau 

KAMCHATKA DISPATCH III

All well out East.

Young Allen recently arrived (my ski partner from the States).  We’ve made friends with the folks down at the fish market.  Dropped the hammer on few local volcanos.  And are now preparing to get rural and go deep.  

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!

- Beau 

KAMCHATKA DISPATCH II

For those who’ve not been, the Russian Far East seems impossibly forbidding and it’s often mistaken for Siberia (just west). The truth is it’s bigger, more remote and, in winter, even colder. Areas of snow-capped mountains and taiga, bigger than some European countries, separate former Cossack fort towns, old Gulag camps, and decaying Soviet towns along railways heading nowhere special...

Kamchatka.  Long regarded as the least hospitable place in the Russian Empire.  But incredibly cool, when things align.

- Beau Fredlund

KAMCHATKA DISPATCH

Hello from the far East!

Kamchatka. In a word, wild. It’s a land of extremes, to say the least. Ferocious weather, gigantic volcanoes, slums and supermodels.  (I hear the fishing is pretty good too)

Da svedanya,

Beau

WARMING UP IN AK

Been in Valdez a few days and have been getting warmed up on some close shots. Conditions are good/stable but lots of tracks from a recent hill climb comp and two weeks of Tailgate Alaska. Hope the weather holds and we'll start working bigger and farther as conditions allow.

- Chris Lundy