Getting to Aleutian island is not an easy task. We were unable to land the first time, returned to Anchorage and tried the next day, the weather was favorable to us and the next time we landed successfully at the airport. After two refuelings on the way. We waited for another plane for several days and it is not known when it would arrive. But a more serious adventure awaited us, namely, a series of unlikely meetings brought us to the captain of a ship who was leaving for the village of Nikolsky and agreed to take us with him. This is how our incredible adventure began. In the Bering Sea and on Umnak Island for 40 days, but it feels like a little life.
The Aleutian Islands are an archipelago of 110 volcanic islands in the North Pacific Ocean, part of the state of Alaska. Presently, there are approx. 25 active volcanoes. The islands are located between Alaska and the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, making up the dividing line between the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The islands cover an area of about 7,000 square miles, which is similar to the Hawaiian Islands which are 10,000 miles in length. The population is very small - about 8 thousand live on all the islands combined.
Dutch Harbor Airport is one of the most dangerous airports on the planet. Aircraft landings are not always successful here. The location of the runway due to the peculiarities of the island's landscape is very dangerous and requires good weather conditions for landing and high skilled pilots. After all, the weather in these places is unpredictable and the storm winds are among the strongest in the world. Also, there is almost constant rain or low fog that make landing dangerous and sometimes impossible. Some days it takes a week or more for airplanes to have weather suitable for landing!
For locals who travel to more remote places of the Aleutian islands, it is understood that this is common. And nobody is surprised about delays which may take several days to go from Unalashka to Anchorage. It often also happens that the weather improves, the plane leaves Anchorage, but during it’s flight time, the weather can deteriorate dramatically, The plane arrives at Dutch Harbor but cannot land because of the weather and has to fly back.
A new law was implemented after the crash of the Saab 2000 aircraft of PenAir, which operated a flight for Alaska Airlines (AS) from Anchorage to Unalaska. Upon landing in Unalaska the plane was unable to stop and went off the runway eventually crashing into rocks on the seashore. Following this incident, a law was passed that prohibits landing at Dutch Harbor airport in hazardous weather conditions. That is why the plane can easily fly all the way there only to be unable to land and return again to the point of departure, which happened to us twice.
Shamanism used to be practiced on the islands. Eventually, the Aleuts were baptized into the Russian Orthodox faith and received Christian names, which we still encounter today. Russian priests played an important role in the development of writing. There appeared public education, preservation of the Aleut language through transliteration of religious and other texts into Aleut through adaptation of Cyrillic. Orthodox monks and priests who came to the islands protected the rights of the Aleuts and helped with education and medicine. Thanks to Veniaminov's work, churches were built in various villages.
One of the most beautiful Russian Orthodox churches is still located in Unalaska and Nikolski village. Part of the service here is still conducted in Russian language. The Church of the Ascension in Unalaska is considered to be the oldest Christian church structure in North America. It contains icons and interior details from two previous churches that stood on the site in the early 19th century. And the Church of St. Nicholas, the first Russian Orthodox chapel, built in 1806 by Father John Veniaminov preserved the wooden elements, a large number of icons and decorations inside. After the U.S. purchased Alaska along with the Aleutian Islands from Russia in 1867, the Orthodox heritage remained intact.
King crab fishing cages
Crossing the Bering Sea on the way to Umnak Island, there was a huge concentration of marine life waiting for us. Here it is the most significant in the world. Killer whales, porpoises, sea otters, seals and whales live here.
The region of the North Bering Sea and the Bering Strait in Alaska is one of the most significant historical, ecological and cultural places on our planet. It is home to one of the largest marine mammal migrations in the world. Millions of marine animals, including belugas and bowhead whales, cross the Bering Strait every year. Millions of seabirds from different continents travel to the Arctic through these places every spring.
Unalaska Island
The village of Nikolski is one of the oldest settlements in the Aleutian Islands and our final destination. Today it is home to less than thirty inhabitants. But it has been continuously inhabited for thousands of years and is considered to be the oldest inhabited place on earth. Located in a very beautiful place. The plains interrupted by rocky cliffs reveal the blue of the North Pacific and the Bering Sea. With a constant view of the snow-capped volcanoes Vsevidof and Recheshnoi. The locals still live a simple life in harmony with nature and each other. The atmosphere that reigns here is incomparable to any other place on the planet. The harshness and difficulty of life of these places on the one hand. Warm attitude and kind smiles of Nikolskoye inhabitants on the other side. This generates incredible harmony and warmth around, despite all the weather.
Douglas C-47A aircraft crash of 1965 in Nikolski
Views to Vsevidof and Recheshnoi on the way to Hot Spring Cove
There is a unique phenomenon on the island - a steaming beach. At low tide, the black volcanic sand on this beach heats up and begins to smoke, creating an incredible sight that is hard to believe. This place is not popular with people, but the locals - the cows long ago made it a spa resort. Therefore, on a sunny day and at low tide, here on the beach you can meet cows that warm their bones and sunbathe.
Stepanof Cove
Cape Kigunak and Cinder Point
On the northeastern part of Umnak Island is the snow-capped caldera of Okmok volcano with six miles in diameter. The volcano is just over 1000 m high, although it is not as tall as its brethren, it occupies nearly half the island. The volcano is divided into two calderas, formed by eruptions many years ago. A crater lake once filled most of the caldera. The prehistoric lake reached a depth of 150 metres. It would still be there if it were not for the speed of erosion and the eruption in 2008 that changed the caldera. It created five large lakes and many smaller ones.
Volcano Okmok is not only an incredibly beautiful and dangerous phenomenon, but perhaps it is very important politically and historically. Volcanoes should not be underestimated as they do have a huge impact on climate change. It is hard to believe, but it is said that the eruption of volcano Okmok led to the fall of Ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire and the emergence of the Roman Empire in the opposite hemisphere. By analyzing ice samples from Greenland and Russia's Northern Earth, scientists found that they contained an unexpected amount of ash. This indicated that the volcanic eruption must have lowered the temperature in the Mediterranean by 7°C. In addition, archaeologists and geologists have found which volcano was created by this ash. To do this, they compared the ratio of CO2 and alkali metal compounds in the ash particles. For all known eruptions, this parameter is unique, and so is for the Okmok. All this, as scholars note, perfectly explains the unusually cold and rainy winters and springs in the Roman Republic, the lack of Nile floods, the strange "omens" in the heavens and the heavy rains in the autumn. All of this superimposed on pre-existing political tensions after Caesar's death and gave rise to one of Rome's longest-running internal conflicts.
The last eruptions of Okmok occurred in 1997 and 2008, but one would like to believe that their consequences were less devastating in global political terms, but no less destructive for the locals. These eruptions uncovered deep pits within the crater and completely altered the landscape both in and around the five and a half mile (8.9 km) diameter caldera. Numerous fumaroles are located on the slopes of the volcano. Millions of fissures and ravines radiate from the crater like threads. There are millions of cracks and fissures scattered in all directions, from one to several hundred meters high, which are impossible to cross. In addition, eruptions caused not only a change of landscape but also the formation of glaciers. The discovery of which was an unexpected and rather dangerous discovery for us when descending from the volcano from the other side.
Views inside of the caldera Okmok
Descending down from Okmok
The islands are located between two continents and many anthropologists suggest that this was the path of the first humans from Eurasia to the Americas.
In 1741, the Russians sent the Dane Vitus Bering and the Russian Alexei Chirikov on an expedition for new discoveries. Their ships separated during a storm, Chirikov discovered several eastern islands and Bering discovered several western islands. Bering himself was shipwrecked and died during the second voyage to the Aleutian Islands. The Aleuts were at first very wary of the arrival of white men. When the first ship came ashore, they received the foreigners politely, fed them, but told them to leave and not to come back. The Russians disobeyed the Aleut chief and returned to the island. For what they were punished, the Aleuts attacked them and sank the Russian ships and killed many. The survivors returned to Kamchatka with tales of large numbers of fur-bearing animals. In later years, seafarers and hunters from Siberia flocked to the Aleutian Islands. For many years, the Aleuts fought clashes with the Russians in protest at the occupation of their lands. Eventually they realized that it was impossible to stop the white pilgrimage to their islands and trade relations won out. The Aleuts began to cooperate with the Russians. This was the impetus for the economic development of these places.
Cook, who had been to the islands and met the Aleuts, remembers their Aleuts as educated, kind, cheerful people on the planet. They dressed very nicely, using natural bird feathers and skins, and were unusually tactful and polite to both guests and each other. The Aleuts have always been civilized but the collaboration with the Russians gave an even greater push to cultural development.
Before World War II, the United States had few commercial and military installations in the Aleutian Islands. Because the archipelago was in relative proximity to East Asia, there was a danger of attack on the islands. Indeed, on June 3-4, 1942, aircraft from two Japanese carriers attacked Datch Harbor, Unalaska, killing 50 people. During the same month they occupied several Aleutian Islands in an attempt to put psychological pressure on the USA and to divert its forces from the theater in the Central Pacific. It is an interesting fact that these military events in the Aleutian Islands were not reflected in the media and the world was not even aware of the fighting here. The Japanese landing on the Aleutian Islands was the first foreign invasion of the United States since the British invasions of 1812. Within the next few months of the attack, 145,000 American and Canadian military personnel were sent to the Aleutian Archipelago - to defend it and retake the islands captured by the Japanese. The population of soldiers on the island of Umnak, for example, was 11 thousand, and they built a large number of settlements and infrastructure in just two years. Which is little preserved now because of the climate. They even built unpaved roads into some parts of the island. The remains of which we have seen and used in several places. Hundreds of buildings were built for coastal defense so that they could withstand earthquakes and hurricane winds. By August 1943, the Japanese were finally expelled from the Aleutian Islands, and the fighting that took place there was gradually forgotten.
Following the Japanese attacks, U.S. military commanders ordered the evacuation of all locals from the archipelago out of concern for their safety and to prepare the islands for the arrival of armed forces. The islanders were given less than a day to pack, being allowed to take only one suitcase of belongings each - without being told where they were being sent or when they would return. About 900 Aleuts were removed from nine villages from across the archipelago and relocated for three years to abandoned canneries among the forests of southeast Alaska. Most Aleuts had never left their island before, many seeing trees for the first time. About 10% of the evacuees died due to unsanitary conditions, horrible living conditions and lack of medical care. Those who returned to Unalaska in 1945 found their homes looted or burned down.
Crater Creek
Waterfall at the gates of Okmok
Kettle Cape
Pacific Coast
Umnak Island has a huge number of rivers, waterfalls and swamps. Because of the windy and cold climate, no trees grow here all year round. Umnak Island has an average of 250 rainy days per year. The days without rain are only a third of the year. In addition there are even fewer sunny days. The average annual rainfall is about 2000 mm per year. Due to the amount of rainfall, there are many valleys on Umnaq, decorated with dozens of waterfalls. Rushing and swift rivers flow down from the mountains; the valleys have majestic bends of waterways, moss-covered estuaries, deep canyons and marshes adorned with downy flowers.In order to walk on the island you need to be prepared to wade across a large number of rivers. Because even over the widest and deepest river will never be built bridges. Soil erosion on the island is so rapid that the bridges will have to change every couple of years.
Most people think the Aleutian Islands are virtually untouched by civilization. However they are not. For a long time, various species of animals have been introduced to the islands, which has greatly affected their flora and fauna. When Vitus Bering first arrived on these islands, he found local red foxes and named them Fox Islands. Then mass breeding of other fox species started on the islands as well, which caused great damage to the bird population.
The foxes have not gone anywhere since then. Now on Umnak Island we met a large number of foxes. They walked along the beaches and rivers, were curious, not afraid and came up to get acquainted. There are whole herds of deer and huge numbers of cattle and even bison on the island. People bring all these animals to the island. Wild reindeer roam peacefully in the mountains and mountain passes. In addition the cows feel at home here, too. They walk everywhere. Many cows have never seen humans, so they are not afraid and do not respect humans.
We encountered hundreds if not thousands of wild cows on the island. Constantly crossing with them near rivers, trying to disperse in valleys, meeting on beaches and in gorges. The only places where we could rest were the volcanoes and the highlands. Once upon a time, people brought cows here for the purpose of production. The complexity and high cost of logistics did not pay off the effort. Due to bad and unpredictable weather conditions it became impossible to conduct business. The ranch was closed; the cows were abandoned and never came back for them. Thus began the population of wild cows on the island. The last data on the number was in 2016. At that time, there were 8000 thousand cows. After that, nobody counted cows. They independently increase their population on Umnak Island from year to year and create a real road system.
Foxes of the Islands
Amos Bay
One of the topics most closely associated with the Aleutian Islands is bad weather. The average temperature in summer is 7 degrees Celsius, and in winter it is about zero degrees Celsius. But winds and rains make this climate truly harsh. The islands are also known as the birthplace of storms.
Neighboring seas each create their own meteorological conditions, and the collision of these two systems constantly gives rise to cyclones, storms, hurricane winds, torrential rains and thick fog. All of this has a serious impact on the weather in Canada and the continental United States.
Although the Bering Sea is at the same latitude as the UK, its climate is much more severe. The southern and western parts are characterized by cool rainy summers with frequent fogs and relatively warm winters with little snow with strong winds. Almost all the water in the Bering Sea comes from the Pacific Ocean. The structure of the Bering Sea waters is characterized by the presence of a cold intermediate layer in summer with warmer waters above and below. In summer, the water heats up, but a significant layer of water, cooled in winter, remains cold. Part of the water in the Bering Sea passes through the Bering Strait to the Arctic Ocean, but most of it returns to the Pacific Ocean. Thus, the constant circulation of cold and warm currents combined with constant changes in atmospheric pressure create unpredictable weather to these places. And the currents of the Pacific Ocean do not allow the temperature to drop like in the rest of northern parts of Alaska.
Glacier of Recheshnoi
Usually hot springs can be found in many places. You don't have to look for them at the foot of volcanoes. After all, geothermal heat often gives the water a warm temperature. The deeper to the core of the Planet, the higher the temperature. The water is deep enough so it can be heated by the hot rock of the earth. In volcanic places, water is heated by molten rock, that is, magma. As in the situation on the island of Umnak. Temperatures are so high here that the water sometimes boils. If water is thrown out to the surface of the earth in the form of a fountain, then this fountain is called a geyser. We saw several geyser sites on the island. And even whole fields of geysers.
The place where there is a geyser is not difficult to notice. There is no vegetation around it and the grass is yellow and burnt in color. We also met fumaroles on the island. The release of hot volcanic gas in the form of jets and calmly floating masses from cracks or channels in the walls of the volcano's crater. In preparation, we found only a few papers by geologists who mention one location of geysers which can be seen even from the sea thanks to the constantly smoking cracks. These geysers have very modest names - lower, middle and upper geysers.
Recheshnoi
Vsevidof Volcano is a majestic and one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands. Its summit is the highest point on Umnaq. In good weather, when the clouds part, which is not often, you can see its symmetrical cone that towers beautifully over the surrounding area.
Camping
Final stop one way back from Aleutian Islands at Chernofski sheep range
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