The name is Finnish, Musta-Tunturi, the Black Fell, and it refers to the long, dark ridge of rock that rises across the neck of land joining the Sredny Peninsula to the mainland. In the summer of 1941 the German mountain troops advancing on Murmansk were stopped here, and for the next three years, until the Soviet offensive of October 1944, the front line ran along this ridge. Soldiers on both sides lived in dugouts blasted out of rock, in temperatures far below freezing and in months of darkness, often within shouting distance of each other.
Today the ridge carries a memorial complex and the remains of the positions are everywhere: trenches cut into stone, collapsed bunkers, rusting wire, shell fragments and sometimes bones. The Russian phrase associated with this place is about the enemy not passing, and the defence of the peninsulas is remembered as one of the epics of the Arctic war. Visitors leave flowers and small tokens at the monuments. It is a sombre place, and the silence of the tundra around it makes the history feel close.
The ride here, as the finish of a loop out to the peninsulas, comes on rough tracks over the tundra, with the ridge looming ahead and the sea visible on both sides. The tracks are rocky, rutted and sometimes muddy, with steep, loose sections where the trail climbs over the ridge and fords where streams cross. In wet weather the slopes can be slippery, and fog can hide the way. The views from the top, when it is clear, take in the Barents Sea, the bays and the empty hills rolling away toward Norway.
There is nothing here in the way of services. Bring fuel, food and water from Murmansk or Zapolyarny, and do not count on Zaozyorsk, which is a closed military town. Keep to existing tracks and paths, because unexploded munitions are still found in the area. Take the time to walk among the positions and think about what it meant to hold this ridge through three Arctic winters. It is one of the most moving places in the far north, and the right note to end a ride on.