Klyuchevskaya Sopka

Klyuchevskaya Sopka is a near-perfect cone of around 4,750 metres - the height changes with eruptions, which is itself the point - making it the highest active volcano in Eurasia and one of the most active anywhere, with eruptions in most years and major ones every few. It has been building for about seven thousand years, which is young, and it sits in a cluster with Kamen, Bezymianny, Ushkovsky and others in the Klyuchevskaya group, the densest concentration of large volcanoes on the peninsula. Bezymianny beside it produced one of the largest eruptions of the twentieth century in 1956, a lateral blast that removed part of the mountain and was studied afterwards as a model for what happened at Mount St Helens. Climbing Klyuchevskaya is done from base camps on the flanks, is genuinely dangerous - falling rock, gas, ash and sudden activity - and has killed climbers, including a group in 2022.

Highlights

• The cone - around 4,750 metres, the highest active volcano in Eurasia.
• The activity - eruptions in most years, with the summit height changing.
• The group - Kamen, Bezymianny and Ushkovsky in the same cluster.
• Bezymianny - the 1956 lateral blast that became a model for Mount St Helens.

When to go

July to September. Five days to two weeks including approach and acclimatisation. Registration and licensed operators are required.

Before you go

This is an active volcano climbed during eruptive periods and people are killed on it - rockfall, gas and sudden activity, with a fatal accident as recently as 2022. Access is off-road and long. Weather closes the mountain for days. Do not attempt it outside an organised, registered expedition.

Nearby

Tolbachik is south in the same group; Kozyrevsk and Klyuchi are the access towns.

Key facts