The Bigwood Sidecountry is what makes this small ski resort out of Kirovsk so special. With a gondola ride and a 20 minute hike you are on top of big alpine bowls that drop back down to the groomers. The main bowls are West facing aspects but it wraps around to south facing slopes. With a bit more hiking you can follow the entire ride to another west facing bowl that goes all the way down to town. Everytime I’ve been to the resort my day isn’t complete without doing a bit of hiking.

Making our way Across the Russian Border

The Khibney mountains of NW Russia deep in the Arctic North is a gem I stumbled across on Google Earth while searching for mountains near my home in Rovaniemi, Finland. Within 5 hours of my doorstep I could be in a unique and isolated mountain range still relatively untouched by Western skiers. Over the past 2 years I had been coming to this range from Mid to late March when it’s not to cold but also not to hot. After getting a visa I was off with my friend Ilkka Kopinen to the town of Kirovsk, an old Soviet Mining settlement with 2 different ski resorts with to pull in winter tourism from Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

After a two hour drive through Finnish Lapland we arrived at the border with Russia. Walking into the small room Ilkka was out in 5 minutes but they were interested in my American Passport. What started as one person turned to 5 as they went through all of the pages. In the end everything was fine but they rarely experienced Americans traveling through the border.

Walking Around Kirovsk

Our first day in Kirovsk the weather was quite windy and snowy. Since it was horrible skiing conditions we decided to walk around and get our food situated for the following days. Staying at the base of Bigwood ski resort we had a clear view of the lifts and knew that they were closed for the day.

Walking around the main center of Kirovsk we passed by the cultural building to see if there were any good shows. The year previous we had seen a ballet but there was nothing showing at the moment.

Grabbing the foods from town we had everything sorted for the week and just had to wait for weather to improve. It felt good to be back in the Khibiny Mountains and hopefully the weather would cooperate this time around as the previous season it was stormy almost everyday for a week.

The next morning we woke up to clear skys but windy conditions. Drinking coffee we waited until we could see the Gondolas start moving and came up with a plan. Since we hadn’t been out yet we would ride around the Bigwood sidecountry. It would allow us to see how conditions were and what aspects were favourable to riding powder.

Renting a condo from a local we were in one of the many concrete building filled with people. While the hallways looked bad the place itself was actually really nice. Not knowing what to expect we loaded the car with crampons and other random gear before heading up to the ski resort.

Off to the Bigwood Sidecountry

After purchasing our lift tickets for 20 dollars we waited in line for the chairs to open. The previous summer they had built a new lift system with chairs on one side and gondolas on the other side.

From the top of the gondola we strapped our boards onto our backs and started hiking. Walking along the ridge we would occasionally get blasted with wind but the weather was slowly improving.

After 20 minutes we were standing on top of the summit and ready to drop into our first line in the Bigwood sidecountry. Looking down the West facing bowl there wasn’t any tracks and it looked like there was powder to be had. Ilkka dropped in first and after making a few turns we were both excited as there was powder to be found.

We had the whole upper bowl to ourselves riding down to the groomer in the lower section. Making sure to keep up our speed we rode all the way to the base and with a 2 minute walk we we’re back at the gondola and ready for the next lap.

Our Second Run in the Bigwood Sidecountry

Hiking back up the ridge the weather had started to clear out. Though it was still windy we could finally see the ski touring options around the Khibiny Mountains. Wanting to make the most of our time we made a plan to head over to the South facing chute in the photo below.

Looking up to what was our first run the big bowl was now in the sun. With the area only accessible with a 20 minute hike it rarely gets tracked out making the Bigwood sidecountry well worth the price of a lift ticket.

Traversing around the summit we walked down to the edge of the chute and looked for the entrance. While the area is surrounded by cornices there is a spot to drop into without having to deal with them.

Ilkka made his way in first finding great snow in the protected gully. Looking to the sidewalls it seemed like the area was wind scoured but it was much better then I had expected.

Once Ilkka was halfway down he traversed to a say spot before I made my way to the bottom. Looking back up I watched him paint the surface with his snowboard tracks before we made our way back to the Gondola.

Sunset Lap Back to Kirovsk

By now the sun was starting to set so we had one run left in the Bigwood Sidecountry. Wanting to make the most out of it we decided to ride a West bowl that took us all the way to town. Hiking up the light was getting dramatic as it hung over the horizon.

Once on the summit plateau we needed to wrap around to get to the top of the West Bowl. While the slopes were steep the top was incredibly flat making it hard to spot where the drop in points were.

The Khibiny Mountains were glowing in the distance as we made the 45 minute walk over to our line. Fortunately sunsets are slow in the Arctic so we still had over an hour before needing to use headlamps.

Before long we were standing on the edge of the West Side bowl and preparing for our last run of the day. Looking out to the west was numerous bowls and chutes we had rode the previous year.

We couldn’t see the entire line until we rode over the edge. Following an open bowl it quickly turned into a drainage lined with rock walls. Ilkka had down this line numerous times before and warned me that halfway through there was a waterfall.

Looking down towards the town of Kirovsk I could see where the slope fell away. We could see both the top and the bottom but not the middle. On normal years the waterfall fills in but we still weren’t 100% sure if it would go.

Standing on top it seemed like the line was good to go. There was a sigh of relief as we only had 20 minutes before it got dark but we would be down in less then 10.

Our exit run

Exiting the Bigwood Sidecountry

We made it back to the road just as it was getting dark and walked up the road back to the car. We had a great day riding the Bigwood Sidecountry and knew that there was powder out there if we went to the right aspects. It was nice using the lifts to access terrain but I was looking forward to doing some ski touring in the Khibiny Mountains. Below is the final line of our day.

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