Polarkreis

The station is located in the middle of the taiga on a small river and is comfortably furnished. There is even a log cabin sauna with a small footbridge to the river, where a hole has been cut into the mighty ice sheet for ice bathing. Valentina, the resolute cook, a soul of a person, welcomes us with a hot soup.

In the beginning was the picture. It was of a strange mountain formation at night, the likes of which we had never seen before. Matthias had come across it while searching the internet for new winter sports opportunities in the Caucasus. But this couldn't be the Caucasus. Like a lunar landscape, folded mountain ranges formed around a basin that seemed to be filled with a lake of light. The flat ridges of the peaks fell away abruptly towards the viewer, and the evenly sloping ridges descended into the vegetation zone in an almost geometric order. The mountains were massively snow-covered – one striking flank in the foreground was even covered in a layer of ice. The decision was quickly made: We have to go there!

The blue of the train station is the only friendly color of our destination. Apatity was founded because of the occurrence of "apatite", a rare mineral used for fertilizer. And that's how it looks here too...