Nothing strange here

This is my response to a post I saw on the following blog: Even normal recreation is getting weird

"Talk about people getting too jaded and needing extreme excitement to prevail over boredom!!

Talk about being out of your freaking mind!"

I don't see anything unusual with snowboarding or skiing on volcanoes. I just see them as a different type of mountain, that might results is some interesting terrain. I think that Kamchatka is likely to be a lot more mellow than Krasnaya Polyana in the Caucuses or Gulmarg in the Pir Pinjal range, both being places I benchmark my trips against. I certainly don't consider riding a volcano to be extreme, crazy, or fringe. I think spending your waking hours working to make other people's dreams come true rather than your own is crazy.

In fact, judging by most people's actions, I think they are fine with snowboarding or skiing volcanoes, even if they haven't ever consciously thought about it. Mammoth, amongst others, is actually a volcano, a fact that often escapes a lot of people.

For me I simply see Kamchatka as an exotic and vast snowboarding destination (larger than France, Belgium and Luxembourg combined), with a long winter, runs filled with endless powder turns, and hopefully enough variation to be technically challenging. Unlike skiers, I can't simply satisfy myself with nice symmetrical zigzag's down the mountain. Bring on hips, lips, drops and gullies! I don't expect to find many trees but then we can't have it all.

There is one volcano that I do want to snowboard that I do think does fall into the crazy, fringe, extreme category. Its Cotopaxi in Ecuador! We have a history. About 4 year ago, with only 100 metres left to climb largest active volcano in the world (according to the 2002 CIA World factbook), my guide decided that the risk of avalanche was too severe and turned me back. I have sworn to go back and conquer that baby, and when I do, I might consider strapping a board to my pack and snowboarding down to declare victory on the sleeping icy beast that will one day kill thousands.

Each to their own really, but I certainly don't see anything too extreme about heliboarding in Kamchatka. What is perhaps extreme is how far away it is from everywhere, including most people's consciousness.

A 100 day season - its a fulltime job

This trip to Kamchatka should crown what has been the best season of my life so far. I had planned on getting 100 days on my board and the season started well with plenty of snow in Europe. From mid December through to late January I went through a 32 day period where I spent all but four days on my board. By the time the Burton European Open rolled into Laax in late January, my body was aching and rather than riding the mountain hard, I found myself happily sitting in Cafe No Name watching the likes of Kevin Pearce and Shaun White, rather than riding the mountain myself. Some of the enjoyment was lost in my boarding and I soon came to terms with focusing on having as much fun as possible, rather than notching up days and after my knee started to hurt, I took a two week break in early Feb. By the time I reached Gulmarg in Kashmir on 12 February, I had about 45 days under my belt.

I had planned on spending 6 weeks of boarding in the Pir Pingal range in the foothills of the Himalayas but Spring arrived about 2 weeks earlier than I had anticipated and I made an unscheduled trip to Kerala in Southern India for what I thought would be a little sunshine. With only about 65 days on my board, I can comfortably conclude that Winter 07/08 is going to fall short of a 100 day season... but there is no doubt that I have had more fun than ever before.

To add to this positive message, I am today also the proud holder of a Russian Visa. This has been stressing me out somewhat and with changes to the Visa regulations in October 2007 now stipulating that Visa's can only be issued to citizen's or residents of the country in which you apply, I was rather concerned that as an Irish citizen, with Swiss residency, currently in New Zealand, I was going to struggle. The rules allow for some discretion and fortunately for me, my basic Russian clearly curried favour with the embassy staff and I now hold my visa. Spaseeba.

I also got an email from Nikolay of Vertikaly Mir today. "Since your group arrive one day early, I would like to inform you that you can have heliskiing day even on 26th which are normally the day of your arrival. If the weather is good, i recommend you to join the other group for this day, if you want. Like this you have more chance for skiing." Brilliant, I potentially have one more day of powder before I call curtains on the best season yet!

What is more, I got an email from the guys at Option Snowboards on Friday and it looks like they are finally doing something about my Option Freeplus 165 which started delaminating after 20 days of riding. Admittedly I think that there has been a breakdown in communication between the shop at which I bought my board and the Swiss distributor for Option because the people at Option in Canada have always been super helpful. Lets see if Casoar in Vevey, Switzerland come through on this one.

My mind is already on next season, on Gulmarg, on Jason's invitation to Japan, on Richard and Nicole's invitation to Whistler and the promise I made in Casa Veglia to Dave that I would enter next year's BEO slopestyle in Laax. My mind even toys with the idea of cutting short a European summer and heading to Chile or back to New Zealand for more. I think I am getting ahead of myself. For the time being let me focus on getting everything out of the snowcapped volcanoes of Kamchatka. It promises to be better than Krasnaya Polyana and even if it only equals Gulmarg, I will have nothing to complain about. My first possible day back on my board is only 15 days away and counting....

Thoughts on Heliboarding in Russia.

Traveling in Russia, when you can't speak Russian, is a little difficult. Unlike say India, you can't always find someone that speaks English. In Moscow you can get by pretty easily, but once you head out into the mountains, be armed with a few phrases. Her are the few I can remember.

• Yes: dah
• No: nyet
• Please: pazhalsta
• Thank you: spahseeba
• What is your name?: kak vaz zavoot
• My name is.. meenya zahvoot...
• I don't understand: ya nyeh pahneemahyo
• Do you speak English: vi goovahreetye pa-angliski
• I don't speak Russian: yah nyeh goovaryu pa-rooskee
• Pivo: Beer
• Hleb: Bread
• Dovarish: Comrade
• Stroganoff: Stroganoff
• Telefon: Telephone

Alternatively, practice saying the word "Woddka", a few times to get the accent right and then just append "ski" to the English word and use your newly acquired Russian and you'll find you can get further than you think. (I also find the phrase "I kjill you weeth my beer hunds" works to get the accent going)

That's pretty much all I can remember two years down the line and it got me through my trip, and a few rather interesting meals. I even got complemented on my accent. Apparently I sound like I am from Moscow.

I am going to be working on my Russian in the next few weeks.

Heliboarding in an Mi8 is an experience. When they fire up one of those choppers a huge jet flame ignites from the exhaust. They are an awesome piece of machinery and unlike their western counterparts, the engineering is relatively simple and one hopes therefore quite reliable. It takes a crew of 3 to fly these beasts. You have a pilot, co-pilot and a spotter and its clear that the guys we flew with have worked together for decades. It reminds me of the story about the Russian cosmonauts using pencils in space while NASA spent millions developing a pen that wrote in zero gravity.

I have recently taken to researching the safety of various helicopters. I had heard from Aviation underwriters that I am acquainted with that a choppers maintenance record was a more important factor in assessing the risk of catastrophic failure than the particular model. When I learned that both the helicopter crash I remember in Cape Town when I was living there, and a heli guide I know recently involved in a crash in Tajikistan where both Russian Mi8's, I decided that I wasn't content with simply taking someone else's word and did some of my own research.
It is interesting to note then that all the stats I could find showed the breakdown of the number deaths per 1000 flying hours by helicopter model. Perhaps quality of maintenance is a little more difficult to assess.

I was encourage to find only 7 crashes logged in the following database. 5 of those (71% were fatal). Both of the accidents I knew about were amongst those 7. I rest a litte easier.

There are economies of scale in going heliboarding or skiing in a helicopter that can take 16 paying customers. There is no denying that is one of the attractions for me. Given the great deal we got, I also had some concerns about the standard of guiding and the ratio of guides to boarders that we would have. I was very pleasantly surprised but in retrospect I shouldn't have been.

Ultimately I think most of I want to live, and wealthy Russian skiers and snowboarders are no exception. These are premium customers that want a premium service and expect what anyone else in North America does. They are simply fortunate enough to have helicopters that make it more affordable to get to the top of the mountain, but once you are there, the experience is no different. Everyone was provided with Avalanche transceivers if they didn't already have them, they were given basic information on there purpose and how they operate and before each run they were individually tested by the guides.

The group would be lead by a guide, with a safe distance being maintained between all riders, particularly over more dangerous terrain, to ensure safe travel. A second guide would ride amongst the skiers/boarders an would be able to respond to any of their needs and a third guide would bring up the rear to ensure that everyone made it safely down to our beautiful Mi8, waiting for our next drop.

One of the most unique aspects of heliboarding in Russia has nothing to do with either the heli, or the boarding, and everything to do with Russia. Where else in the world do you get dropped off at the bar for apre ski and go and enjoy beer and caviar as if it where Gluhwein in Austria or Schummliflummli's in Switzerland.

Krasnaya Polyana didn't boast much of a night life but perhaps I am just guilty of failing to find it. Of the little I know of Russians, they like to enjoy themselves, so I figure I was just looking in the wrong places. I am lead to believe from my friend Sacha that Kamchatka has quite a serious night life. Bring it on.

Krasnaya Polyana

Having decided not to go to Kazakhstan, I successfully managed to organise a heliboarding trip in the Caucus mountains in only 6 days. On Monday Tony and I decided to go, by Tuesday morning we had our tickets to Moscow which I booked on ebookers (I had trouble with the Aeroflot site all of Monday night) and queued forever outside the Russian embassy in Bern and paid through our noses for a same day visa, and by Saturday night we were walking around Red square, drinking beer and being lead aimlessly into the Russian night.

Russian night clubs are great. The women are beautiful. Many of the clubs have face control. If you aren't pretty, handsome or rich enough to make it irrelevant, you aren't allowed in. I think that only really applies to locals. How else would I explain the fact that both Tony and I got in without a hitch. Well, I am just being silly because if you have ever seen either of us you would know that we are both super good looking... I would even venture as far as to say that we are blue steel good looking! I wonder how we will cope when we are back in Moscow with Andrew and Colleen in a few weeks en route to Kamchatka?

We really couldn't have organised things nearly this well if it hadn't been for Matt from Waytorussia.com. He was super well organised and we got an excellent deal. Matt, our hotel in Moscow wasn't great. It was part of the Olympic village way back when, but the reality was that we headed into the heart of Moscow and enjoyed the sites, sounds, and drinks, the moment we settled in. I was last in Moscow as a young 15 year old. In 12 years it had changed dramatically. I don't think that does it justice.... but then this blog is about snowboarding and not about the fall of Communism so I will move on.

Traveler's Wisdom Note #2: before traveling in a country, check to see when the clocks change. This, as well as avoiding too much drink the night before, can prevent unnecessarily missed flights.

(Travel Wisdom Note 1. - travel with a trophy to breeze through airport hassles).

It was only upon arrival in our hotel in Krasnaya Polyana on Saturday evening that I noticed that the clocks showed a different time to that of Moscow and on asking the cute receptionist (Christina, clearly distinguishable from Julia) whether we were in a different time zone to Moscow, did I learn that the clocks had moved an hour forward the previous night.

Having run into Dave Downing upon our arrival at Shermetyevo in Moscow, we ran into Jake Burton Carpenter and a crew of his in Krasnaya Polyana on our first night. They too were dining at Mark Testut's fine French restaurant which seemed so out of place in KP. We had a chat to Jeff from Jersey, one of the camera men and learned that they were shooting for the film "For Right or Wrong". We got the low down on the weather and the forecast for the next few days, and were told that we would be certain to see them in the coming days. KP is not a big place. Well it wasn't then. It seems like it is set to go with the 2014 winter Olympics being awarded to Sochi last year. Loads of money was getting pumped into the place when we were there in March 2006.

Krasnaya Polyana was my first heliboarding experience. Having come to snowboarding quite late in my life, and having ridden a lot of the same terrain in Switzerland for the preceding couple of years, I think I was always going to be easily pleased. I am certain that I would go back there, but I would choose to go earlier in the season, and I would attempt to fill the Mi8, which has a capacity of as many as 16 customers, with better riders. The last thing you want is to be taken down easy runs all day because you have some rich Oil Oligarch with his 10 year old son that wants gentle rolling terrain, and he is prepared to pay for whatever it is that he wants. Very quickly epic heliboarding in Russia isn't so cheap and a Russian military helicopter can become a glorified chairlift.

Luckily that didn't happen to us... very often. Our guides were brilliant. They let us skip the runs that we didn't think looked like the goods and we didn't pay for that. On other runs, one of the guides would take one route with the less experienced skiers and Nikolay, the other guide, would take us down more challenging runs.

I think I could have asked for better snow from top to bottom (there we freeze-thaw conditions that you noticed on some of the runs with bigger vertical drops), but that is my fault for only going at the end of March. Every run offered us fresh tracks, and the terrain was endless, with Domba and Mt Elbrus at 5700 meters visible in the distance. We had the opportunity to spot brown bears from the helicopter while we scouted out terrain. The terrain was awesome and untouched and at each drop site, runs to the North East would lead you into Georgia and those to the South West would keep you in the safety of Russian territory with a Russian Ministry of Defence mi8 waiting to pick you up at the bottom of each descent.

Later discussions with Nikolay lead me to learn about Kamchatka and the Russian far east. Heli operations are generally run by Vertikalny Mir in Krasnaya Polyana from January through to March and then in April they head through to Kamchatka. Any earlier in Kamchatka I am told, doesn't guarantee you much flying time as the storms are too frequent. Nikolay and I also spoke about Kazakhstan and he confirmed some of the horrors stories I had earlier heard about. He told me that the snow in Kazakhstan had always been renowned for being very fast and in the former Soviet Union, it had been the place where speed skiing records would always be set. As well as having these strange characteristics, he told me that the snow has a propensity to avalanche at really low pitches of as low as 15%. I don't know how true all of this it is, but on the authority of the guide that I entrusted with my life for the previous week, I was happy to let my imagination turn to new destinations where I could explore my passion.

And thus was the seed planted for my trip to Kamchatka in April 2007 before my knee injury precipitated a postponement to April 2008.