Kamchatka Volcanoes. One pleasant benefit from the improving relations between what was the USSR and the United States is that previously closed areas are becoming open for exploration and climbing. One of these is the Kamchatka peninsula with its 29 active and 300 dormant volcanoes. It had been closed to foreigners from 1917 to 1990. Our group of Americans organized by REI Adventures and of Russians from the Alpinklub Kutq of Petropavlovsk climbed several of these volcanoes in late August and early September. The Americans were Frith Maier, Chuck and Judy Demarest, David Koester, Chuck Wolf and I.

Rick Jali