Ok, so the last couple of weeks have been unbelievably bonkers! There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s just dive right in. The first few days were actually quite nice. After trying to recover from my wicked case of the flu in Ulaanbataar for a few days, I boarded a domestic flight for Ulgii, way out in western Mongolia. This area had traditionally been where Kazakh nomads grazed their herds in summer, but when new borders were drawn in 1921 between Mongolia, Russia, and China, many Kazakhs were surprised to learn that they were now Mongolians. Today, good luck finding anything Mongolian here. Regardless of the borders, this is Kazakh country.

I was picked up at the airport by Syerik, my hiking guide for the next ten days and the owner of Altai Nomads Travel. After a really good meal in Ulgii, we met up with our driver, Eska, and our cook, Fiko, and we were off west in an old Russian made van to stay with a nice Kazakh eagle hunters family (N 48.950771, E 89.523745). We camped out in a Kazakh yurt and in the morning I was introduced to the family’s eagle.

The eagles are raised and trained from the time they’re chicks and used mostly for getting pelts. The family still primarily lives off their goats. We then said goodbye to the family and drove most of the day until we reached the entrance to Altai Tavan Bogd National Park and camped near the north ranger station. We also said goodbye to our driver, Eska, and the next morning were joined by six horses, led by two Kazakh nomads, Semetai and Umirthan, who would carry all of the gear the rest of the way.

The first real day of hiking, after showing the Mongolian border guards our permits, was to the Malchin Peak base camp (N 49.149901, E 87.943196). This is the heart of the national park. Five incredible peaks which form the Mongolian, Russian, and Chinese border. Tavan Bogd means Five Saints, by the way. Their English names are Sun Peak, Land Peak, Eagle Peak, Friendship Peak, and Cold (Khuiten) Peak. Khuiten is the highest peak in Mongolia at 14,350ft, but all are very technical climbs. That’s why I’m doing Malchin Peak right next to them at a modest 13,287ft, it’s the only one that doesn’t require climbing equipment. Right before reaching base camp we passed by the Presidents Ovoo (N 49.138642, E 87.983788). Apparently, lots of Mongolians come to visit this place in the summer including every president, but I seem to be the only visitor this late in the year.

As you can see below, the view of Altai Tavan Bogd hiking into Malchin Peak base camp is pretty tremendous! There’s also two glaciers sliding down on either side of Land Peak. Potanii Glacier is 12km long, and Alexandra Glacier is right next to it, not sure how long it is though.

The next day was Malchin Peak day. Syerik, Semetai and I started early on horseback to the base of the mountain and then started climbing up the slippery rocky ridge. I was definitely not my strong, healthy self, but I finally made it, coughing all the way. Malchin Peak forms the border between Mongolia and Russia, so I got to experience having each foot in different countries again (N 49.171445, E 87.875159).

Already on day five, we broke camp and hit the trail headed for the White River Valley. Not a lot happened this day outside of the views of the beautiful valley and the awesome camp that night (N 49.089354, E 88.176591).

We hiked down, through, and up the other side of the valley to a beautiful lake. Now is a good time to mention how cold it’s been because night five on that lake was really the only night that was “relatively” warm. Just warm enough, in fact, to strip down and clean some of the funk off of my body and my clothes without freezing to death in the process.

The decent weather didn’t last. We woke up to some unbelievably cold wind, snow on the ground, and later, full on blizzard conditions. I didn’t really see the next valley called Fresh Water Valley because I was too busy trying to stay warm and preventing the horizontal ice from stabbing my eyeballs. It was so bad in fact that we didn’t even make it all the way to the next camp. We stopped about a mile or so short of it because the weather was getting worse and worse (N 49.009353, E 88.166785).

The next morning started out hopeful with clear skies (see the pics above), even if it was still freezing cold. As soon as we started hiking the weather got progressively worse, though. Today is the day we had to cross the high mountain pass. By the time we got to the part where we climb to the top of the pass on the steep rocky slope covered with fresh snow, the wind was howling and even knocked me down a couple of times. At the top of the pass the wind was even worse, plus the snow and the cold. I felt like I was on an expedition to the north pole.

Finally we made it over the pass and started descending into Bear Valley. It’s the last valley on the hike, but not the last day. As we made our way down the weather started clearing up a bit. I was happy to actually be able to see Bear Valley. I was worried this would be another white out.

Even though the snow and the wind stopped, it was still freezing cold. The best part about Bear Valley, though, is that it’s the only valley with trees which means… we can make a CAMPFIRE!!! (N 48.932352, E 88.058498)

We all took the opportunity to dry our shoes, socks, gloves, coats, and whatever else was perpetually wet and frozen from the last few days. I dry roasted all my socks using a stick, thanks to a suggestion from Umirthan.

Once again, Altai Tavan Bogd turned out to be a tease with the weather because the next morning the wind and snow were back on the menu. I couldn’t even get nice weather on the final hiking day. Some people get decent weather, green valleys, purple mountains, blue skies and fun times on these multi-day hikes. I always get a raging respiratory infection and the most extreme weather survival challenge the universe can dish out. But I digress.

The final day takes us further down Bear Valley, past Green Lake, to the final camp, where our driver, Eska, is supposed to camp with us and drive us out the next day. More on that in a minute. First, Green Lake (N 48.859419, E 88.110949). Looking at the pictures now, it’s really beautiful. At the time, though, I was tired and my feet were going numb so I was pretty much over it.

We reached our windy, snowy camp (N 48.826131, E 88.127559) and spent a cold night in the kitchen tent eating, and drinking tea, and trying unsuccessfully to stay warm, so we all went to bed early. This was the coldest night yet. I had been able to stay warm every other night with all the clothes and my negative degree sleeping bag, but this night was really difficult. I even woke up to find that the whole inside of my tent was coated with ice crystals! Seriously?! Even the propane in the five gallon tank froze solid. And now is where the story really gets turned sideways.

As you can see in the pic above, other than being cold and icy, the morning wasn’t so bad. I was woken up by Syerik saying they had made a fire. So we all huddled around the fire and waited for the sun to rise above the mountains. Once the sun was shining it warmed up a bit and thankfully there was no wind.

As I mentioned before, our driver was supposed to be waiting for us at this camp, but he wasn’t, and we didn’t know why. So Syerik and Umirthan rode off on horses about 10km away to get a cell signal to find out what was going on. The rest of us just chilled out at camp (pun intended) and kept the fire going all day. Finally around 1:00pm they got back and here’s what happened next. The car (car 1) broke down on the way, so Syeriks wife sent another car (car 2) to get us, but they got stuck in the snow on the way. So, Syerik arranged to have a local nomad with a jeep (car 3) to come get us. Car 3 showed up around 4:00pm, we packed everything up and started on our way, saying goodbye to Semetai, Umirthan, and the horses who I found out now have an almost three day ride back to their homes. Wow! Maybe an hour into the drive we got a flat tire and had to put on the spare.

Back on our way and about 30 minutes in, the spare tire popped too. Our new nomad friend said he could fix it, but that was going to take a long while, we were all already frozen, and the sun was setting. So I grabbed Syerik and we walked a bit up the hill and ripped apart a dead tree for fire wood. Just then, Semetai and Umirthan had caught up to us on the horses and helped with the fire starting and tire repair. I swear, in my wildest dreams I will never be as tough and resourceful as these Kazakh nomads. I was in awe of these guys the whole time. Anyway, after a couple of hours, the tire was fixed, filled with air using a hand pump not fit for a bicycle tire and we were back underway. The only thing scarier than driving on Mongolias ridiculous roads covered with snow, is doing it in the dark. Yes, I was nervous, but our new nomad friend seemed to know what he was doing.

Apparently, by this time car 2 got unstuck somehow and was on their way to us. I’m still confused about how that happened, but whatever. So the plan was to ride in car 3 until we crossed paths with car 2, move everything into car 2 and continue on back to Ulgii from there and let our new nomad friend go home. We met car 2 around 9:30pm (keep in mind we were supposed to be in Ulgii hours and hours ago) and were underway. Around 11:00pm I learned that car 2 was seriously low on brake fluid and the brakes were now kaput. So after a couple of hours of filling the brake lines with hydraulic fluid from the jack and a bottle of vodka (yes, really) and doing whatever it was they were doing under the hood, the brakes worked… sort of… maybe… hopefully. My only thought for the rest of the trip back to Ulgii was, “If we get a flat now, we don’t have a jack, and I get to experience the icy frozen death I’ve been fearing for the last day and a half”. Luckily, we made it back to Ulgii alive, but it was around 4:30am, too late to check into my hotel. So Syerik hosted me on his couch which his wife had made up for me and I crashed until about 9:00am. Then Syerik took me to find a place to stay for my next two nights in Ulgii. I ended up at Altai Guesthouse (Syerik knows the owner) where I washed clothes, took an unbelievably welcome hot shower, and then sat on a comfy couch to document this tale of absurdity, for you, dear readers.

Holy Crap… I’m in Ulgii!!!

The very first thing I heard about Mongolia that made me want to research coming here is the once obscure, but now famous, Ulgii Golden Eagle Festival. It’s a sporting event where Kazakh eagle hunters compete in various events with their eagles for prizes and bragging rights. Unfortunately, getting in so late from my Altai hike I missed the first day of the festival, but I definitely wasn’t going to miss day two. All the eagle hunters are riding around all day showing off their eagles and posing for pictures. There were around 20-30 of them I estimate.

There were also opportunities to pose with the eagles and ride camels. I settled for just pics, but it was quite something to see.

The main event involved the eagle being released from a nearby peak while his handler rode on horseback calling him and dragging a fox pelt. The field has circles on it and which circle they’re in when the eagle catches the fox determines how many points they get. Not every eagle does so well. In fact, one of them flew around in circles for a bit and then flew into the judges booth and landed on their table. Haha! It was super difficult to get good action shots, but I got lucky with one if them.

At one point I climbed up to the peak to see the eagles view of everything. You can see the field with the three big white circles for scoring, as well as the multitude of food venders and souvenir stands in this beautiful valley just outside of Ulgii. Up until now during this trip, I’ve seen so few other tourists that I could remember each one, but this event was made so popular in just the last few years that about half of the attendants are now foreigners.

The second most important event, I don’t know what it’s actually called, but it’s between two riders on horses having a tug o’ war using the body of a dead goat. Yes, really. Apparently, it’s a very important sport in Kazakh culture and they are really, really into it.

At the end there is a quick awards ceremony and then everyone gets out of there quick because the sun is going down and it’s about to get very cold. The whole day was cold, in the high 20’s to low 30’s Fahrenheit, but the sun was shining and there was no wind, so I’m calling it a pretty good day. Having this really unique experience and good weather on this last day was a welcomed way to end this portion of my Mongolian adventure.

Well, that’s gonna wrap up this super long post, but believe it or not, I’m not done yet. I know, I know, I’m crazy! I still have two weeks left in Mongolia so don’t switch that dial just yet…