Khibiny Mountains, Kola Peninsula Ski Adventure Russia 1191m

The Kola Peninsula is situated high up in the Arctic Circle and is home to the Khibiny Mountains, overlooking the Barents Sea. Our nearest city is Murmansk, a short drive away. The peninsula's northerly latitude ensures a long ski season, and long skiing days with cold dry snow late into spring. Once heavily glaciated, the terrain consists of huge open rolling landscapes, ideal for touring. The classic glacial topography of deep U-shaped valleys and rolling summits creates long descents on a variety of different aspects which lets us seek out the best snow from one day to the next.

Each expedition will be accompanied by two guides allowing some people to take an easy day whilst others search out steep and challenging terrain. The itinerary isn't fixed; there are many peaks and objectives close to us and the number of them that we tackle and the order in which we tackle them will come down to the weather on the day, the snow conditions and the energy levels of the group.

Our accommodation in the peninsula will be the Kuelpor hut, which lies at the low altitude of 275 meters yet is at, or very close to the normal snow line, and gives great access to the various local summits all of which are between 1,100 and 1,200 meters in height, overlooking the Barents sea in the distance.

Itinerary

Day 1: Flight from London Gatwick direct to Murmansk where we sample the local vodka and spend the night at our hotel there.

Day 2: A bus will take us to the mountains where we will be met by a team of snowmobiles which take us over the Kukisvumchor Pass to the Kuni'iok Valley where the hut is situated. Depending what time we get there we may have time to put in a few runs to warm up before the first big day tomorrow.

Days 3 - 7: In no particular order other than what the snow and weather dictate, we start to tackle some of the big mountains around us which include Mount Marchenko (1,020m) and Mount Kaskasniunchorr (1,180m) which are a short ski tour away; a climb to the south is Mount Rischor (1,185m) which merits a full day's exploration; Putelichor and Indychvumchor (1,165m) sit high up on their own plateau beyond a 1,080 pass; and Mount Chasnochor is our highest objective at 1,191m.

Our objectives are diverse and beautiful, with entire mountains almost certainly to ourselves. The ground is relatively easy to cover, and we will be ascending and descending in the region of 1,000m per day.

Day 8: Our last day of skiing today and we make the most of it by skiing ourselves out of the valley, over the Petrelius pass, down through the Ramzai Gorge to Lake Vudiavre where we will be met by our bus to take us back to Murmansk. Our luggage meanwhile will have followed us on the sledges behind the skimobiles.

That night we enjoy our final dinner washed down with a fine sampling of local vodkas.

Day 9: Return to London after a welcome breakfast.