Klyuchevskaya Sopka
Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4,750 m or 15,584 ft), located 56° 04' N, 160° 38' E, is the highest
mountain on the
Kamchatka Peninsula,
Russia, and the highest
volcano in
Asia. Its steep, symmetrical cone towers just sixty miles from the
Bering Sea. Klyuchevskaya's first recorded eruption was in
1697, and it has been almost continuously active ever since, as have many of its neighboring volcanoes. Klyuchevskaya last erupted in
1995. First climbed in
1788 by Daniel Gauss and two other members of the
Billings Expedition. No other ascents were then recorded until
1931, when several climbers were killed by the flying lava as they descended. Similar dangers exist today, and few ascents are made.