Arkhyz

Arkhyz sits at about 1,450 metres in the upper Bolshoy Zelenchuk, in pine and fir forest below ridges rising over three thousand metres, and it has three separate reasons to go. There are the lakes - Sofiyskiye, Zaprudnye, Semitsvetnoye and others in glacial corries, reached on day walks or with an off-road transfer to the trailhead, held in rock bowls and coloured by glacial flour. There is the ski resort at Romantik and Lunnaya Polyana, built from 2013 and among the newer developments in Russia. And there is Nizhny Arkhyz downstream, where three stone churches of the tenth century survive from the Alan state that held this region and adopted Christianity early - among the oldest churches in Russia - along with the Sofiyskiye waterfalls and, on the ridge above, the RATAN-600 radio telescope and the six-metre optical telescope of the special astrophysical observatory.

What you actually see

• The corrie lakes - Sofiyskiye and others held in rock bowls, coloured by glacial flour.
• The Alan churches - three tenth-century stone buildings at Nizhny Arkhyz.
• The new resort - Romantik and Lunnaya Polyana, built from 2013.
• The observatory - RATAN-600 and the six-metre optical telescope on the ridge.

When to go

December to April for skiing; June to September for the lakes and passes. Two days to a week. Lake trailheads need an off-road transfer.

Honest expectations

Lake walks are long days and the transfers to trailheads are rough and charged. Weather in the high corries changes fast. The resort is still developing and services are uneven. Observatory visits are by arranged tour only.

Nearby

Nizhny Arkhyz and the observatory are downstream; Dombay is east.