This summer a team of whitewater kayakers led by Bryan Smith embarked on an expedition to explore the Siberian mountain landscapes of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Partnering with scientists, the fly fishing community and National Geographic our team will investigate the complex relationships between the place, its people, and its fisheries.
Read the latest at http://www.kamchatkaproject.org/schoolhouse/?cat=90

THE HURDLES

Over the past two years we have raised nearly $50,000 from individual donors, our key sponsors, and a generous grant from National Geographic Expeditions Council. For all those out there wondering why we need so much money to pull off a trip like this, herein lies the crux: beyond the $13,000 in flights just to get to Kamchatka, we’re easily looking at another $25,000 minimum to get to just two rivers via helicopter and truck once we’re there. At $3,500 an hour, helicopter rates in Kamchatka are amongst the most expensive in the world; and unfortunately, no alternative forms of transportation (with the exception of hiking or treading across the landscape in a tank) exist to get us into the remote rivers we’re after.

We’ve spent hundreds of hours poring over maps, navigating Google Earth, and talking with people familiar with Kamchatka’s geography in a search for the best collection of rivers that will make for a well rounded and relevant expedition within the constraints of our budget. Since our team is amongst the first groups of whitewater kayakers ever to explore Kamchatka’s remote steep rivers and creeks, very few of the people we’ve talked with have good sense of what we’re even looking for! There are no guidebooks, no super-knowledgeable sources, and no documented ‘pinnacles’ to achieve. Instead, we’ve grown accustomed to following half-baked leads from disparate sources and filling in the information gaps where we can.

On top of these information gaps come the inherent planning challenges presented by a foreign language, a wild-west culture, and the unpredictability associated with any remote and sparsely populated region – especially Kamchatka. We’re expecting the unexpected, whether it presents via multi-day helicopter delays, intensive customs interrogations, uncooperative permitting officials, or any other combination of factors.

THE DETAILS

Our broad objective goals of kayaking exciting whitewater, making exploratory first descents, learning about the world’s most productive salmonid ecosystems, helping film a television show, and collecting relevant scientific data have loosely pointed us towards many interesting destinations; and although no single ‘perfect’ location has stood out that captures all these elements in one affordable package, our team has assembled an itinerary that we believe presents the best opportunities to meet these objectives and help tell Kamchatka’s important story.

We depart for Kamchatka from Seattle on June 30th and return on July 30th. Even though Kamchatka is relatively close to the Pacific Northwest, we will be flying around almost the entire world to get there (read related post): Seattle to New York, New York to Moscow and then Moscow to Petropavlovsk. Just getting to Kamchatka is a feat unto its own, and will involve over 22 hours of flight time in addition to layovers.

Once we land we will take a couple of hours to knock off the jet lag and then head immediately to the Kol River: one of salmon ecologist Dr. Jack Stanford’s key study locations and home to over 8 million spawning wild salmon each year. Our goals will be to see and understand how a healthy salmon-based ecosystem works (the Kol is listed amongst the healthiest in the world), investigate how some of the Kamchatkan government’s anti-poaching efforts are working on the Kol, and highlight the significance of the ecology research that has been conducted on the Kol over the past two decades.

Upon returning to Petropavlovsk from the Kol biostation we will fly in an old MI-8 20-person helicopter north to the Storzch River or Shamanka River (depending on weather and conditions), where we will spend just under a week on an expedition to explore and document one of these remote and uncharted pristine drainages. What we know about these rivers is based largely on heresay and speculation; and to say the least, we’re excited for the unknown.

After this expedition we’ll hook up with National Geographic Television and renowned fly fishing guide Ryan Peterson to float the Zhuphanova River, known amongst fly fishermen worldwide as a mecca for bull trout and salmon fishing. In addition to navigating the film crew down the lower Zhuphanova, we’ll be looking at flow, discharge, temperatures, and river bottom substrates in the main channel and side streams, checking out nitrogen levels in plant biomass from various parts of the valley, and documenting ecological characteristics of the entire aquatic floodplain. We hope to be able to show how the nutrients salmonid bring from the sea to their native rivers provide the base of a lush food web that goes well beyond the river itself.

From here the team will split up: Jeff and Bryan will stay on with the National Geographic crew while Ethan, Rob, Shane, and Jay will explore several other rivers within driving and hiking distance of Petropavovsk. Bryan will be second camera unit and Jeff will act as a scientific liaison for the National Geographic show as it meets with several Russian and American scientists and travels to Kuril Lake and several other key salmon hotspots. The details for the latter end of the trip will continue to be flushed out more and more in the coming weeks, but as we’ve learned from past experiences and been told by countless advisors, this adventure will be marked by countless unexpected variables, and much of our actual schedule is sure to be determined on the fly once we’re in Kamchatka.

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