Best Skiing

Flanked by the freezing waters of the Bering and Okhotsk seas, the Kamchatka peninsula is a land of brimstone and ice—not exactly Russia's easternmost point, but eastern enough to warrant the adjective "far." Since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., it has ceased to be a restricted military zone, but it's still uncharted territory as far as tourism goes, and a virtual unknown when it comes to winter sports. You're more likely to run into brown bears than other skiers. And that's only one of the reasons this rugged land—the size of France but with a population of just half a million—is...