Kukisvumchorr is a small ski hill located 25 kilometres north of Kirovsk. There are only two tbars that take you 1,500 feet to a the top of a long ridge. The ski resort itself comprises of an open bowl with groomed runs down low. Just to the north is a long ridge with 4 big drainages that feet back to the base of the Tbar. The town was built for mining and the people built the hill to keep themselves entertained. After 10 minutes of being dragged up the hill it access some awesome terrain.
Driving to Kukisvumchorr
After a day of riding at Big Wood ski center we took a 30 minute drive out of Kirovsk to go check out another resort called Kukisvumchorr otherwise known as 25km. Making our way along the road we passed by some steep looking mountains. While the peaks weren’t the biggest they still had a bunch of different types of mountains. and check out some of the other potential ski touring mountains around the Khibiny Mountains of NW Russia.
The terrain that really caught my eye was the face that we drove under. There were two massive gullies that went all the way to the road.
When we got to the parking lot of Kukisvumchorr the place was surround with eroding buildings. It was the exact opposite of anything you would see in America. If there weren’t already cars there I wouldn’t have been able to find the ski resort.
With just two T bars the terrain it accessed was quite impressive. While we were only going to stay on the East side they had displayed West side runs where there are no lifts. Kukisvumchorr is heavily focused on backcountry riding.
Exploring 25KMs
From the top of the Tbar the view we walked to the summit and took in the view of the Khibiny Mountains. The summits of all the mountains were flat from glacial erosion. It made for easy travel up high but steep on the lower slopes. Looking along the ridge the right would bring you back to the T bar while left would bring you down to a snowmobile road.
Looking back towards the south was the town of Kirovsk with the White Sea far in the distance. The town was barely on the south edge of the Khibiny mountains but offed numerous different ski tours.
Looking to the West was a bunch of steep faces and couloirs. It seemed that there were some unique chutes that would be great to climb and snowboard. While not big they were definitely aggressive.
Snowboarding the side country of Kukisvumchorr
Throughout the day we would just traverse a little further on each run finding fresh snow along the way. The further we would go out the further we would have to traverse back. While the first two gullies were an easy route back the further gullies required a boot pack.
Our time at Kukisvumchorr or better known as 25kms was a blast. Though it hadn’t snowed for two days we were still able to find good snow. It was crazy making turns with the vast mine in the distance. Occasionally you would hear explosions going off. I was incredibly impressed with the place.
We were only in town for four days but it was cool to get a feel for the area. Both Bigwood and Kukisvumchorr are fun ski resorts to explore within the Kirovsk Area. Being in the Arctic and remote to the rest of the world the whole place has a wild feel. I knew I definitely wanted to come back the following year.
Thank you for reading and If you enjoyed reading this and want to see more ski tours within the Khibiny Mountains check out this link