Tsypina Hill

Tsypina hill is a glacial mound four kilometres from the village of Ferapontovo and twelve from Kirillov, beside the village of Tsipino. Its 210.4 metres above sea level make it one of the highest points of Vologda Oblast: only Malgora stands higher in the region. For the flat Russian North this is a real mountain — with real views for tens of kilometres around, and a rarity the locals are proud of. Together with the Maura and Sandyryova hills Tsypina belongs to the Russky Sever National Park, and since 1968 it has carried the status of a protected landscape monument. The slopes are wooded, with well-worn trails climbing through them; on top are open glades, rock outcrops and lookout spots. The hills here stand in an arc around the lake basin, and from the summit the whole arc reads at once — the district's geography gathered into a single picture. Descriptions of Tsypina were left by nineteenth-century authors, including archimandrite Makary (Mirolyubov): the hill has long been a compulsory stop on journeys around Ferapontovo and Beloozero, and the roads from Kirillov into the interior passed through the Tsipino pogost at its foot. From the summit you see the Ferapontov monastery itself with its towers, both lakes — Ferapontovskoye and Spasskoye — and far chains of hills to the horizon. The climb is a walk, needing no gear; the way leads from Ferapontovo or from Lake Ilyinskoye, at whose foot stands the Tsipino pogost with its wooden church of Elijah. The views change every hour: morning mist over the lakes, midday blue, sunset ochre. Sunset from the top is the North's signature scene: the sun goes down behind the lakes and the monastery towers below read as a black silhouette on burning water.