Kamen Volcano

During my expedition to climb the highest active volcano of the northern hemisphere (Klyuchevskaya Sopka, 4800m) I woke up at 2am in a tent on a glacier in Kamtchatka (Russia) and prepared myself together with two friends for the climb while feeling the freezing -20°C and the frostbite in my right toe from the previous days. At 3:30am we headed into the dark to move through knee deep snow slowly towards the summit. Those minutes before the sun came out in an altitude of roughly 4000 meters were by far the coldest I ever felt. At that time we stopped for a little break and turned around to see the inactive Kamen volcano right across from us glowing from the rising sun. You can't imagine the feeling we all had just being above the clouds, knowing how much time we spent to get here and now being able to see this. After a few minutes of pure awe I managed to get my camera out and captured the moment. You can see the steep slope, filled with snow and tons of loose rock, that we were ascending right in front of us. Our tents were directly below this cloud that just managed to fill the pass between the two volcanoes.