“Don’t Try This At Home” Stunt #463: Call it dedication to their work. Call it more Russian craziness. Call it vodka-induced….oh, never mind. But a team of ten Russian climbers is headed up 10,700-foot Mt. Shiveluch on Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka peninsula. “So what?” you say. Well, Shiveluch is a volcano and it’s currently spewing lava and ash up to 3 miles into the sky. In fact, it’s been erupting non-stop since 2001. The cover story for this thrill-seeking gig is that there are some vulcanologists on the team who plan to study the thing close up…very close up. Yeah, right. Turns out that there are 141 volcanos on the Kamchatka peninsula, 28 of them active, and climbers from all over the world are constantly adding a little spice to their climbing by scaling the smoky ones. In fact, last year a Czech climber was killed there. Not to worry, say officials associated with this current expedition, scheduled to be completed by June 25, if the thing really blows, they’ll head down. Good thinking…



Sizzling Shiveluch: “Hey, guys. I’ve got an idea. Let’s go climb that one with flame coming out the top…”