This summer, adventure filmmaker Bryan Smith and a team of experienced kayakers head to Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula to claim first descents and raise awareness of the fragile biodiversity of this unique wilderness.

 

 

 

 

 

The Kamchatka Project will take Smith and the team to three previously un-run rivers that have been identified as critical salmon habitat on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Steep creeks in the Kurile Lakes region and pool-and-drop drainages around the Karymsky Volcano promise varied whitewater, spectacular mountain scenery, and rich salmon spawning grounds.

The team's goals include speaking with the local people of Kamchatka and government officials about their relationship with the land, the rivers and the salmon, raising awareness about preserving wild salmon habitat, and collaborating with scientists to contribute to the body of ecological and hydrological knowledge of Kamchatka.

As part of the project, Smith will be filming a documentary that will premiere at the Banff Mountain Film Festival and team member Robert Bart will be creating and implementing an educational program for Oregon high schoolers.

The team describes the lure of Kamchatka on their webiste:

The Kamchatka Peninsula in Eastern Siberia is one of the last places on earth that has yet to bare the scars of human development. Kamchatka served as a military outpost for the USSR during the Cold War, and as such, the area was forcibly de-populated and left alone for much of the twentieth century. There are no dams, no massive extractive resource operations, less than one person per square kilometer, and only one major highway on this 600 mile long peninsula.

Kamchatka is one of the most geologically active places on the planet, hosting 114 active holocene volcanoes, one of the largest densities to be found. The recent mountain ranges that form the spine of Kamchatka bear resemblance to those found in New Zealand, Japan, and parts of the western United States. The rivers that flow out of these mountains are often fed by large aquifers via underground lava tubes, and as a result show relatively steady flows season to season.

The collapse of the USSR brought dramatic changes to the peninsula, and since 1990 private enterprises, the Russian Mafia, and convservation groups began to flock to Kamchatka. Kamchatka now stands as one of the last truly wild and pristine places on earth.

Follow the expedition as it unfolds at www.kamchatkaproject.org, and look for more coverage from Rapid.


Photo credit: NASA Earth Observatory, Ashfall from Karymsky Volcano eruption March 2009