We flew 4 hours southwest from Anchorage over the Bering Sea to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Siberia in the far Eastern part of Russia. Kamchatka is a beautiful and remote land of tundra and volcanoes. We spent about 2 weeks there in July and August, 2003 exploring the area, looking for bears, marmots, and ground squirrels. We visited the Central Group where the highest volcanoes top out at around 15,000 feet. While we didn't climb the tallest volcanoes, Kamen & Klyuchevskay, we did climb Bezymyanny and Zimina to just under 10,000 feet. Klyuchevskay and Bezymyanny were active during our visit, causing rocks to tumble and ash to fall from the sky.