Travel to the Arctic Circle

Hello our Steemit friends!

How time flies! We're halfway through the summer. We think this is a good time to put you in touch with cozy town Kirovsk in Murmansk region over the Arctic Circle where we lived over 3 months.

Snowboarding is an important part of our life. And we just really miss winter and snowboarding in powder! So let us introduce Kirovsk to you!

Kirovsk is a small town surrounded by Khibiny Mountains because of it was known as Khibinogorsk until 1934. Kirovsk is located on the shores of the Lake Bolshoy Vudyavr (in translation from the Sami language "Vudyavr" means "mountain lake").

There is modern ski resort which provides winter sports facilities named after this mountain lake "BigWood". It is the highest mountain resort in the North-West Russia. In 2014 the gondola chair lift "Bartholet" was built and put into operation there. The capacity of the gondola is 2500 people per hour. So you can start enjoy the lift and reach the highest point of the mountain almost from the center of the city! It is very comfortable!:) 

We was in Kirovsk a few times. It is very easy to fall in love with this city if you like mountains, snow, skiing or snowboarding! This place is a Paradise for freeriders, paragliders, climbers and everyone who loves the beautiful nature and the mountains.

Also Kirovsk is a place of he shooting of a few movies. We witnessedne of them "From the bottom of the top". The movie's tagline is "The winner is the one who carries in his heart more love!" The premiere of the movie in Russia scheduled to begin in September 2016. Can't wait to see!:)

Among other movies was shooting in Kirovsk are quite famous and smash. For example, the movie "The Dyatlov Pass Incident" was really shooting in our favourite Khibiny Mountains but not in the Urals. 

In 2013 Andrey Zvyagintsev worked here on a few scenes of the movie "Leviathan". And any resident of the town could participate in the shooting of the movie in the crowd scene!:) By the way the film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Zvyagintsev won the award for Best Screenplay. The film was adjudged as the best film of the year at the 2014 London Film Festival and the 45th International Film Festival of India. It won the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards.

From the tracks of  the Bigwood alpine skiing complex you can admire the views of the lake Bolshoy Vudyavr and scenaries of Kirovsk. From Khibiny Mountains the town seems really small and so cozy. 

We've never get bored in Kirovsk. It is very beautiful! It is greate to wake up in the morning to drink green tea and looking out the window to see snow-capped mountain peaks! And, of course, we spent every day on the snowboard tracks. We worked, traveled in the Murmansk region, visited the Sami village, went to the competition, went to museums, tasted hitchhiking and couchsurfing in the Murmansk region, hosted the guests and introduced with great and interesting people:) 

By the way Murmansk region was included in the top ten places to travel in Russia according to the magazine National Geographic Traveller. It's nice in any time of the year! Would you like cheking it by yourself? ;)

 Sincerely yours, Natasha and Roman,Expanding the Scope

• Instagram: expanding_the_scope 
• YouTube channel 
• Email: [email protected]