Snowmobile tour to Kronotsky Reserve

An exclusive snowmobile trip across taiga forest in Kamchatka? Easy! And this is more than travelling: it’s a voyage out of the realm of your usual sensations. Once you set out for Tumroki – you disappear from the real world. There’s nothing left but yourself, the snowmobiles, taiga, fresh snow, and the intense warmth of hot springs!

Kamchatka is fabulous and unique – and diverse. Its central part is very different from the more civilised southeast because of its coniferous forests and dry, snowy winters. Winds are light here, and winters look fluffy and picturesque.

Tours available: March 4 through 11, 2018

Number of participants: 9

Price per person: 99 000 RUB

Day 1  
Arrival in Yelizovo airport. Check-in at lodge with thermal pool in Paratunka. Stress relief time.

Day 2
Transfer to Lazo
Ride our van to Lazo with stops in Sokoch for the famed, locally made pies (delicious) and in Milkovo for a dinner in a café. The frozen river Kamchatka will be crossed on ice. Check-in at guesthouse in Lazo, a settlement of timber industry workers. Hot sauna, substantial meal. We’re celebrating the first day of our journey!

Distance involved: 450km
Travelling time – 7 hours

Day 3
Early breakfast. Pack up equipment and ride the well-prepared sleds and snowmobiles. Safety briefing for riding snowmobile-propelled sleds. Passenger seat breakup: one on the snowmobile behind the driver, two in the sled.

You will be taken to a highland plateau overlooking the Klyuchevskaya volcanic cluster, the Kizimen, and other picturesque volcanoes. There is a hunters’ cabin with a wood stove standing on the plateau, remindful of Jack London’s books. As you travel to Tumroki and back, midday meals are various snacks and hot tea in thermos flasks while suppers come in great variety, delicious and hot.

Distances involved: 60km
Travelling time: 6-8 hours

Day 4
More snowmobile riding. The vast plateau overlooks a stunning active volcano named Kizimen. The journey continues down into a valley across a forest of birches and spruces. The hot springs are so near!

Tumroki hot springs are nested among untouched, wild nature, very near the base of the Kizimen, a beautiful volcano whose height measures at 2,375m and whose fumaroles can be seen fuming out the cabins’ windows. This place is worth visiting thanks to the incredibly beautiful views, diversity of flora and fauna, including the elegant Dahurian larch, and the amazing night sky that is almost so close that you could reach out and touch it. The air there is crystal clear, very clean, and flavoured with the ubiquitous juniper fragrance making you enjoy every breath you take in.

The water deserves a separate paragraph. It is clean and has medical properties. Four hot springs are found on the territory, all with different water temperature, complete with tubs, and there are potable mineral waters.

You will dwell in warm guest cabins heated by wood ovens, complete with electricity supply. Each cabin houses four guests, and you can bathe in the wholesome Tumrok hot springs.

Distances involved: 20km
Travelling time: 3-5 hours

Excursion to the Kizimen

Kizímen, or Schapinskaya Sopka, is an active volcano. On 11 November, 2010, a new eruption began, including an intense outflow of lava. Currently, Kizimen is ejecting ashes actively and periodically.

Return to lodging, bathing, rest (body and soul).

Distances involved: 25km
Travelling time: 5-6 hours

Day 5
You won’t need to hurry in the morning, taking your time for another bath in the hot springs and packing up before you set out further into the taiga. There will be snow-covered valleys overgrown with alders and forests of larches, stone birches, and spruces, all part of the Kronotsky Reserve with 30 kilometres to cover before you reach the Kipelye hot springs. Wildlife that can be encountered en route includes elks, wolverines, foxes, sables, and lynxes.

Health-boosting bath with millions of bubbles, hot at 38 degrees centigrade. Travel out of the Kronotsky territory and visit Ipuin, a hunters’ base. Warm, log cabins with wood stoves and electric lighting wait for you, and you will become familiarised with everyday life of hunters in Kamchatka. 

Distances involved: 40km
Travelling time: 8 hours

Day 6
End snowmobile trip, finishing in Lazo. Check-in at guesthouse, sauna. Hot, delicious supper.

Distances involved: 70km
Travelling time: 3-4 hours

Day 7 
After early breakfast and pack-up, set out for Petropavlovsk in a comfortable bus. Snack stops in Milkovo and Sokoch; stopover at popular ‘wild’ hot springs in Malki for sightseeing and/or bathing. Return to lodge in Paratunka.

Distance involved: 450km
Travelling time: 7-8 hours

Day 8  
Breakfast. Visit fish market and souvenir stalls in Yelizovo. Transfer to airport.

Expected weather

During the trip to Kizimen: daytime temperatures around zero or minus five centigrade, dropping at nights to fifteen or twenty. Possible snowfall. The plateau part can be very windy and with snowdrifts; light winds elsewhere.

Recommended equipment:

Warm, waterproof, ventilated jacket with sound cape and cuffs
Warm, waterproof, ventilated trousers with cuffs
Thermal trousers and shirt, plus spare set
Thermal socks, plus spare set
Thermal pyjamas
Warm Polartec fleece jacket
Down waistcoat, or light down jacket
Warm, windproof cap
Balaclava
Ski mask
Warm gloves
Spare warm mittens
Scarf or buff
Warm, waterproof winter boots good for a temperature of minus thirty centigrade (very tight, because you will wade in deep snow)
Spare footwear
Slippers for walking indoors
Washing utensils and swimming gear

Equipment:

Backpack or waterproof sports bag
Small backpack for excursions and transfers
Sleeping bag (minus ten degrees centigrade comfort temperature)
Head torch
Knife
Plate, cup, spoon
Lighters

First-aid kit: bandage, hydrogen peroxide, adhesive plaster, band-aids, etc.

Optionally, skiing or snowboarding equipment

Also recommended: thermos flask (half a litre or litre), camera, charger, spare batteries, sit mat, string for binding objects together, zip packets, elastic bands, spare insoles, needle and thread, pins, energy bars…