AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Set on the south-western shoulder of the Putorana Plateau, deep above the Arctic Circle, Lake Khantayskoye is one of Russia's most extraordinary and least-visited waters. It is a fjord-like ribbon of startlingly clear, glacier-fed water-so deep, at a reported 420 metres, that within Russia only Lake Baikal and the Caspian Sea hold more. For travellers drawn to raw, roadless Arctic wilderness, the lake offers a rare combination of taiga-fringed shores, record depth, legendary fishing and the living culture of the Indigenous communities who still camp and fish its inlets.↗↗
There are no resorts, no signposted trails and no schedules here; reaching Khantayskoye is part of the appeal. The journey itself-upriver by boat from the Norilsk-Dudinka area onto a basin that explorers first charted only a century ago-sifts out the casual visitor and rewards the prepared with solitude, waterfalls, cloudberry on the slopes and the chance to meet Dolgan, Evenk and Enets families whose connection to this water runs for generations.↗↗
