The Wild, Wild East !
Interview of Seb Montaz, Chamonix mountain guide and ski instructor by Sean Newsom, founding editor of Welove2ski, an independent guide to skiing and ski holidays.
This April, Seb had a change of scene - flying out to the far east of Russia to snowboard on the enormous volcanoes of Kamchatka - and to shoot the awesome footage, below. We caught up with him on his return to ask him how he got on.
Kamchatka! You lucky b*stard, Seb. Was it your first time?
Yes it was. Last year, in April 2007, my friend Neil McNab took a group of clients out there for a couple of weeks, with his company McNab Snowsports. He came back with stories of perfect movie-making powder, so when he suggested I join him in 2008, there wasn't a moment's hesitation. I said "yes of course".
What's it like out there?
Incredible. Kamchatka is a 1200km peninsula, poking out into the Bering Sea, and until 1992 much of it was out of bounds to non-military personnel. Legend had it that the numbers of grizzly bears outnumbered the local population!From a skier's or snowboarder's perspective, what makes it special is the chain of 200 volcanoes that stretch along its length - 29 of which are still active. Some of them offer 2000m descents, top to bottom, and in a good winter, you'll make your final turn close to a boiling geyser or an ocean wave. The only way to access most of these runs is by helicopter. We flew in a MI8, a retired troop-carrier.
Who was on the trip?
Guys in their early 30s and early 40s, working in the City of London, in IT, or entrepreneurs with their own businesses. They were all regular clients of Neil, and had been snowboarding for many years - so they were looking to take the next step in their riding, and to experience something new.
Was the snow as good this year as last?
Different. This time we had spring snow conditions. A combination of warm days and cold nights gave us firm, super-grippy snow, which we had to ride at just the right moment - after it had softened in the sun, but before it turned too soft and heavy. I can't pretend we weren't a little disappointed not to have powder, but that's the way it goes in a maritime mountain range. Sometimes it dumps an ocean's-worth of snow on you. Sometimes it's mild.
How do you rate it compared to Chamonix? It must be hard to find a place to ski or ride which matches it?
It's impossible to make the a meaningful comparison. Each mountain range is unique - and yet somehow Kamchatka is more unique than most. The active volcanoes with their hot craters, the cool winds off the Pacific, the frontier culture, the wild-west atmosphere - it's a heady combination! Where else in the world can a group of riders amuse themselves on bad-weather days by walking into a pistol-shooting range in the middle of town, and firing off bullets at a dollar a shot? It feels more like a proper adventure - with skiing or snowboarding an added extra.
What was the best descent of the trip?
What made the trip special was the combination of contrasts: the volcanoes and the ocean, the ice and the warm hot springs. The best decent was simply the one that combined them all. The film shows this memorable run, where we were droped on a peak north of Vilyuchinskaya bay: from the volcano you could see your arrival point way below you, marked by the helicopter parked a few metres from the Pacific Ocean. Lunch (smoked salmon and caviar) was waiting for us on the sand when we arrived, and the bravest boarders had their swimming suits and towels packed in their rucksacks for a dip afterwards.
The last ride of that day finished in the Vilyuchinskiye hot springs. Beers were also loaded in the chopper for a nice finish. It was quite a feat of organisation!
What are the bars like - we can't help imagining dodgy drinking dens, where men in sealskin throw shot glasses at the fireplace.
Petropavlovsk is the furthest big Russian city from Moscow - far closer to Alsaka than the capital. Certainly, it's the wild wild East - but not quite in the way you'd imagine. Bars and discos can be modern and attarctive (you MUST visit the Sports Bar featured on the video). There are many students there and probably the biggest concentration of beautiful women in the world. Your heliboarding trip can easily turn into heli-birding! And they all seem to have one big wish: to escape to Moscow or the modern western cities to find a better life.
Needless to say, the locals know how to party! It wasn't unusual for some of the group to arrive straight from a club for breakfast, then have a quick shower, and jump into their snowboarding gear ready for the next day of riding...
