Russia · RU

Akademicheskoye

Perched at roughly 750 metres on a rocky shelf in the very heart of the Khibiny mountains, Lake Akademicheskoye is one of the most photographed high-water bodies on the Kola Peninsula. Crystal-clear, ice-cold water fills a long glacial basin ringed on three sides by 200-metre cliffs, and from the rim of the Kukisvumchorr plateau the scene looks almost otherworldly — visitors liken it to a crater left by a fallen meteorite. The lake owes its name to the Soviet Academy of Sciences expeditions that once worked these mountains, and to the great mineralogist Alexander Fersman, who devoted decades to surveying the Khibiny. Today it is a flagship goal for a demanding but rewarding subarctic day hike out of the mining-and-ski town of Kirovsk, and a viewpoint that rewards any walker willing to climb into the high tundra.