!!!Klyuchevskaya Sopka Volcano

by Dmitry Moiseenko, Sergey Shandin and Stas Sedov,
members of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

9 February 2015

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

A volcano eruption is a unique, natural phenomenon that only a few
people get to see in a lifetime. And, it is even more true in the case
of the highest volcano in Eurasia.

Back in 2012, the AirPano team had already photographed the Plosky
Tolbachik volcano eruption in Kamchatka, so we knew all the technical
aspects of the shooting process. But this time we were going to
photograph the Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption at a totally different
height — 4800 meters — almost three times higher than the last time.
Usually a helicopter is unstable at such an altitude because the air is
rarefied, and so an Mi-8 tries not to fly so high: each simple maneuver
that is usually performed in seconds, takes several minutes in these
conditions.

[{Image src='01_Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption.jpg' caption='Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='601'}]

There is little oxygen in the air which makes it hard to breathe, and
the temperature at 5000 meters falls to -50°C (-58°F). All the shooting
is done through open hatches, doors, and portholes. Sometimes you even
have to lean out into the icy wind.

We were faced with a challenging task but had little idea about the
actual difficulties that awaited us ahead. After a long discussion we
decided to take a chance, and our camera crew set off for Kamchatka. To
get to Kozyrevsk we had to take a nine-hour flight, followed by driving
500 kilometers down a snowy road in a SUV. Even though the volcano was
50 kilometers away we could see it from this point. Occasionally the
crater would discharge small ash clouds into the air, but it was very
hard to observe the eruption from that distance.

[{Image src='02_Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption.jpg' caption='Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='601'}]

We were set to depart the next day. But in the meantime we got our
equipment and warm clothes ready for the trip. It was -25°C (-13°F) on
the ground, but the temperature dropped a few degrees every kilometer we
went up, which significantly affected our equipment and the crew's
efficiency.

[{Image src='03_Kamchatka in winter.jpg' caption='Kamchatka in winter' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='585'}]

Helicopter on Kamchatka at night

And finally the helicopter took off, carrying us to the volcano. Even
though we started gaining altitude right away, it was very hard to get
to the 5000 meters mark in front of the volcano. At first the helicopter
was blown away by the wind, but after a while we managed to navigate to
the volcano's main crater. There we saw a fascinating picture: the
evening sun illuminating clouds of steam erupting from the crater, along
with lava running slowly down the side of the volcano. It was almost
unbelievable but the temperature outside was about -50°C (-58°F). After
a couple of shots our fingers started to freeze, and the front of the
lenses were getting covered with a thin layer of ice, so we had to take
pictures almost at random. But then something unprecedented happened: in
15 minutes almost all of our equipment stopped functioning one by one.
The first to break down are five professional cameras, and after that
our GoPro cameras that were supposed to perform in all kinds of
environments. The only thing that
saved us was a big stash of equipment that we took with us. It allowed
us to get some actual footage out of this trip.

[{Image src='04_Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption.jpg' caption='Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='601'}]

The helicopter hardly maintained the altitude, and despite all of the
pilot's efforts we couldn't fly close to the volcano. The moment we saw
an enchanting spectacle of light in the sky that made the volcano and
erupting clouds of ash turn orange, we faced another problem. Because of
the constant struggle to maintain the altitude, our helicopter was
running out of fuel much quicker than we anticipated. I wished we had
flown off 15 minutes earlier! We begged the pilot to give us more time
to take photos, and after calculating the fuel consumption, he agreed to
hover near the volcano for a few more minutes. During that time we were
able to capture an unimaginably beautiful landscape. After that the
helicopter started a rapid descent. We couldn't even imagine that an
Mi-8 could fly this way. It was really scary. We tried not to look back
as we flew away from the magnificently blazing sunset. We landed on the
helipad with the fuel tanks almost empty. Our pilot even joked about
"fuel vapor" being the only thing
that held us in the air.

[{Image src='05_Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption.jpg' caption='Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='506'}]

Due to the extremely rapid descent, we became partially deaf — our ears
became tightly clogged. For a few days after that we had to shout to
hear each other. It took two weeks for Stanislav to get rid of his
hearing problems completely.

[{Image src='06_Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption.jpg' caption='Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='506'}]

A few magnificent volcano views, an incredible roller coaster adventure
on a helicopter, and equipment that suddenly started working again
sweetened our first unsuccessful flight a little bit. But, we had never
felt so much disappointment from missed opportunities before.

[{Image src='07_Shooting of volcano eruption.jpg' caption='Shooting of volcano eruption' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='558'}]

The next day all of us wished for only one thing — to correct the
mistakes made during the previous evening. We decided to repeat the
flight, changing the departure time so that we could shoot against the
sunset illuminating the volcano. Unfortunately, this time our problems
began on the ground — during the preflight testing our equipment stopped
working. We lost precious 30 minutes soldering disconnected wire to the
camera's stabilization system right in the cabin. It became obvious that
the volcano would make us work hard to earn some good photos.

[{Image src='08_Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption.jpg' caption='Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='601'}]

Flying up to the volcano that evening we saw that the eruption had
intensified moving to the active phase: splashes of molten lava erupting
from the crater were clearly visible in the approaching twilight. But
our hopes of flying up to the lava river that was flowing down the
volcano were crushed. All attempts to approach the mountain on
helicopter failed, and despite all efforts the pilot couldn't overcome
the hot air flows. When our cameras stopped working the second time
around we realized that this trip was a complete waste of time. Not even
warm batteries or the helicopter's heating system operating at full
capacity could help us. By mid-flight we had only one working camera.
Those conditions were way beyond our equipment's capacity! To top it all
off we didn't see any fantastic sunset that day: the sky was clear and
wasn't as colorful as before. We returned to the base in total silence
and without completing even a tenth of what was originally planned.

[{Image src='09_Helicopter on Kamchatka.jpg' caption='Helicopter on Kamchatka' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='601'}]

But we couldn't admit our failure to tame the volcano, and so we decided
to schedule our third and final flight for the next morning. We took off
before dawn. The sky was overcast with dark clouds, but the pilot
assured us that we faced low cloud conditions. We felt uncomfortable
flying into the middle of nowhere through a veil of clouds, but after
passing the 3000 meters mark we saw the sun. The volcano looked quite
different in the morning light and wasn't as scary as before, although
the eruption still continued. We also saw neighboring volcanoes piercing
through a carpet of clouds: Krestovsky, Kamen, and Ushkovskiy. From the
right angle Klyuchevskaya Sopka gradually changed its color from pure
white to gray ash. A hot lava river was flowing down the center of a
black scar stretching from the top of the mountain. The crater was
spitting white steam and clouds of black ash again and again.

[{Image src='10_Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption.jpg' caption='Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='538'}]

[{Image src='11_Shooting of volcano eruption.jpg' caption='Shooting of volcano eruption' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='601'}]

We didn't know if it was the volcano's mercy or just the warmer weather
outside, but this time three out of five cameras turned on, and we
finally managed to finish the shooting. After making a few laps around
Kluchevskaya Sopka our helicopter was heading towards Kozyrevsk, when
suddenly Shiveluch Volcano erupted in the distance discharging a cone of
ash that pierced through the clouds. The volcano was 80 kilometers away
and almost invisible, but the ash cone was very discernible, so we were
able to observe a simultaneous eruption of two of Kamchatka's giants!

[{Image src='12_Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption.jpg' caption='Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='601'}]

And then we were back on the road, snowy trees flashing before our eyes
as we drove to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky with footage and memories about
this incredible adventure. Without a doubt, this was one of the most
interesting, and at the same time, one of the most difficult and
unfortunate shooting expeditions that we ever went on. Despite all the
problems, we were able to capture a glimpse of the eruption and share it
with you through our panoramas taken above one of the largest volcanoes
on our continent — Kluchevskaya Sopka.

[{Image src='13_Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption.jpg' caption='Klyuchevskaya Sopka eruption' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='601'}]

\\ \\
[13 Panoramas of Klyuchevskaya_Sopka_Volcano|Geography/Asia/Russia/Pictures/Panoramas_of_Volcano_Klyuchevskaya_Sopka]











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