LAND O F FIRE AND ICE story Will Nicoll photographs Simon Norfolk In the mysterious and wild frontier region of Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula, the elements clash as cinder- spewing, active volcanoes sit cheek by jowl with steaming geysers, snowy glaciers…and Eurasia’s largest population of protected brown bears An extinct volcano looms among the geothermal over the Kronotsky Nature steam clouds of the Valley Reserve in Kamchatka of Geysers (right). Eurasia’s (previous pages). The largest bear species can peninsula accommodates exceed 7.9 ft in length 29 of the world’s active and stand almost 10 ft volcanoes. A brown bear tall on its hind legs In the bruised lapis hue of late afternoon in Federation, the province’s capital is often lit Kamchatka, Alexei the pilot rises from his with a small blinking red diode, reminding bed and washes his face. He tucks a gold us that a city does indeed exist, against crucifix beneath the hem of his undershirt all probability, on the eastern fringe of and buttons his thick plaid shirt. There are the earth. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the at least two fresh bear paw prints close to gateway to Kamchatka and glints like a our cabin’s entrance, but Alexei appears bead of red caviar misplaced by a snacking unperturbed by the presence of Eurasia’s pilot on a poorly proportioned aviation largest bear species so close to the lodge chart. Although emphatically Russian, the where we’ve picked at smoked fish and city is situated 4,204 miles and nine time eaten borscht. As we prepare to venture zones east of the country’s capital. again into the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, Among the peninsula’s volcanoes, rivers, the aircraft’s rotors begin to churn the earth. and thermal springs live 37 different species Vapor spewed from the world’s second of mammal. Here, Russia’s largest bear largest geyser field temporarily cloaks the population feeds contentedly on some of valley. With spectacular theater, the hot the world’s greatest salmon stocks. Animals springs project columns of sulfur and steam amble between the area’s many micro- into the air, mixing with the first strains of climates with relative ease. Humans rely pollen to form a layer of turmeric dust. on helicopters, off-road vehicles, snow-mo- During 10 long minutes of spiraling biles, and dog-sleds to navigate even small ascent, we seem to continue the same sections of the undulating terrain. Despite ten-thousand-year retrograde journey that accommodating more than 320,000 people, we unwittingly began when we landed in Kamchatka’s extreme climate has impeded Kamchatka four days earlier. The volcanoes the creation of infrastructure. Petropavlovsk of the reserve surround us. Some are steep remains the second largest city on earth, ocher rises capped by smoke and sulfur. after Iquitos in Peru, with no connection by Others contain iced craters of shimmering road to the wider world. teal acid. Grey ash streaks the bulky, Existing guidebooks give rote statistics bulbous hillocks, which have co-joined and like these, while expounding the endless overlapped and split and fused during adventure possibilities that exist here, but millennia of tectonic fraternization. Now, Kamchatka retains its enigma by never they mark Kronotsky like the dark ticks yielding its picaresque mysteries. During that are plucked from reindeer by the a nine-hour flight from Moscow, I read the Koriak and Itelmen herders who walk in naturalist Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov’s the valleys below. As we approach one 1755 account of the expedition he made to spectacular crevice, Alexei steadies the the region 13 years earlier with the Danish helicopter. For approximately 10 seconds, explorer Vitus Bering. we hover above one of the last remaining “It is difficult to generalize as to whether frontier lands on earth. the disadvantages of Kamchatka outweigh The Kamchatka peninsula remains one the advantages,” Krasheninnikov writes, in of the most mysterious destinations in a passage that only confounds the reader the world. On airport maps of the Russian farther. “On the one hand, the country has 28 PATEK PHILIPPE The Kamchatka peninsula contusions along the neither grain nor livestock. It is subject to is laced with 14,000 rivers, jagged Pacific coast. frequent earthquakes, floods, and storms, 400 glaciers, and 150 The remoteness of the thermal springs. Equivalent region led the Russian and the only diversions are to gaze on in size to the state of government to exile towering mountains with summits eternally Connecticut, the reserve prisoners there in the contains 4,240 sq mi 18th century, which, covered with snow, or, if one lives along of active volcanoes and paradoxically, contributed the sea, to listen to the crashing of the rock formations that toward opening up swell to form ocher the area to settlers waves and observe the different species of sea animals and consider their intelligence and constant battles with each other. If one considers only these things, it would in 1941, it became only the second such seem more appropriate for this country topographical site in the whole of Eurasia, to be inhabited by wild animals than by containing the second largest number of human beings.” geysers in the world. As a result, Kronotsky When we first arrive in Petropavlovsk, is sometimes called “the land of fire and visibility is non-existent. The sleet is such ice.” While Russia’s northern steppe will that the license plates of the vehicle lodged remain carpeted with old snow for the 16 feet in front of us are illegible. The majority of the summer, Kronotsky is square buildings beside the road are typical already enjoying a thaw. of a provincial Russian city, but there is no As we near the valley, geothermal heat, sign of bears, geysers, or sea otters. Snow close to the earth’s surface, is defrosting turns to rain, and rain turns to snow. Our the ground and liquifying the remnants of flight to the interior is canceled and hourly precipitants past to swell the peninsula’s weather forecasts delivered by the heliport aquifer. We land close to a series of log are punctual and pessimistic. Atmospheric cabins. Alexei’s helicopter rests comfortably pressure is said to afflict visitors with head- on two feet of compacted snow. As the aches, and after walking for a mile beside rotors slow, our boots separate the slush, a congested city road, through the veil of my revealing fragments of black asphalt and migraine the dog-walkers and commuters volcanic ash that glint like wild berries seem unusually solemn. sprinkled upon plump Syrniki pancakes. Suddenly, we’re informed that the clouds We’re travelers in a place with some of will soon clear, opening a window to fly the highest recorded volcanic activity on north later in the afternoon. We quickly earth. Molten lava has been known to flow approximate the weight of our baggage and on hillsides strewn with snow and scree. jettison heavy items of food, before driving Sergei, the local ranger, is the custodian of to an airstrip demarcated by helicopters that the Valley of Geysers. He lives in a wooden are beyond repair and frail yellow flowers hut that overlooks the Geysernaya river. known as “the first maids of February” Clutching an emergency bear flare and an peeking from the summer snow. Alexei’s automatic rifle, he leads us into the ravine, helicopter seems impossibly small, but because a bear has been sighted there. This as we leave Yelizovo, its rotors cleave the is far from unusual in Kamchatka where, in low-lying clouds, and we elevate quickly. summer, as salmon stocks surge, spotting Volcanoes, it seems, have encircled us since bears becomes a near everyday occurrence. our arrival. They’ve stood hidden behind a However, in late spring many bears are cowl of mist, obscured completely though only just awakening from lengthy spells their summits exceed 9,840 feet. of hibernation. Sergei taps the pathway’s The Kronotsky Nature Reserve is situated wooden railings to warn any testy animals 140 miles northeast of Petropavlovsk. of our approach. When we emerge from Created in 1934 and now designated a the scrub, a bear sits yawning nonchalantly UNESCO World Heritage Site, Kronotsky near the pathway in the sun. Early settlers is best recognized in scientific circles for had observed the relative gentleness of the Valley of Geysers. When discovered Kamchatka bears in comparison to their 30 PATEK PHILIPPE PATEK PHILIPPE 31 Siberian cousins, but wary of angering a The city of Petropavlovsk- mammal that might weigh in excess of Kamchatsky (opposite), founded in 1740 by 1,400 pounds, I want to slow my pace. the Danish explorer Sergei proceeds, cautiously, identifying a Vitus Bering, is closer to Anchorage, Alaska, and further three bears in the vicinity. After Sapporo, Japan, than to fishing and foraging for berries, they are the Russian capital. A vast fishing industry is the returning, en masse, to their cool mountain economic mainstay of dens. The Kronotsky reserve is home to the region: dried smelt (left) are traditionally eaten Eurasia’s largest population of protected in bathhouses; Alexei brown bears and the eight hundred who and his wife, Anya, in reside here are rascally and curious. Even their Koriak yurt (below); the population of 320,000 when we reach a proximity of 10 yards, relies on snowmobiles the bear shows little interest in moving. and dog-sleds to traverse the terrain Eventually, he yields to Sergei, but we’re now so close we can make out the texture of his clumpy coat. It’s unkempt after hiber- nation and curiously iridescent. Kamchatka bears are said to be flecked violet, like the burnished nacre shells of the mollusks that litter the beach in Petropavlovsk.