Mongolia, Part 3: Hiking and riding in the Altai

Tom on a horse

OK, I will get this one out of the way early. I rode about half the trek, partly because of river crossings and mucky valley bottoms where the option was filling up my hiking boots with wet stuff, and partly because at the higher elevations I was running out of breath and holding everyone else up. (We crested a col at 10,200 feet before dropping to about 8,200 for the night, then camped two nights on the moraine at about 10,100). 

So do I look comfortable? I did get comfortable, eventually, because Bucko was pretty laid back. (Maybe they sedated him? I am sure the horses for the Westerners were carefully selected to be semi-comatose.) The Australian-style saddles were a big help; Eddie says the Kazakh saddles are murder. (Photo courtesy Lorraine).

The crew

And speaking of Eddie, I should present the folks who worked so hard to make this the great trip it was. In the first picture (courtesy Lorraine): Eddie, Carbai and Dosjan at the lunch table; in the second picture, Mel and Eddie at a different lunch stop; in the third picture, Carbai on his horse, completely in his element, keeping an eye on us as we move out one morning.

Finally here is the entire support team lined up at the end of the trek as we were loading up for the return drive to Ulgii. All told there are about 6 camel herders, three horsemen who rode with us, about 4 cook staff and helpers (Alex stands out as the only African in the group), and the rest are general labour for grooming and saddling our 16 horses every morning as well as their own horses, putting up and taking down the cook tent, mess tent and sleeping tents, as well as digging the pit latrines and any other general duties required to keep our little caravan on track. Many of the younger ones are learning English and it is doubtful how many will be nomadic herders like their parents. They shared a warm round of applause and (more importantly) a sizable tip in US$ from their Western clients. 

Next photo: Carbai is first from left, Dosjan 4th, and Alex next to last.

The trek

After two days at the southern end of Khoton Nuur, we moved to the head of the lake. (Click on the photos of the maps to view them full-screen; this will work better on a big computer screen than on a phone.) I'll spare you lots of text as the photos are quite effective. 

A beautiful day along the lake, following our camel train. Most important was keeping the lunch camel in view.



A happy rider and a rickety bridge over glacial runoff.





Next day we hiked up a canyon, Tsagaan Us Gol.

Cool breezes, larch forests and fields of alpine flowers make this very different from the hot and dry steppes.





Lydia posing in a field of wild onions and assorted alpine flowers.





Physically the most demanding day was the hike from about 7,200 feet to a pass at 10,200. I brought up the rear with Mel who kept an eagle eye on me as I counted 100 steps, then stopped to get my breath back and my heart rate down before tackling the next 100 steps. I rode the rest of the day to camp at 8,200 feet. 

Here I am putting a stone on the cairn at the col before we started to get a bit of weather -- ice pellets which turned to light drizzle. This all cleared up pretty quick, though, and was the only really bad daytime weather we encountered the whole trip.



Next day we hiked to a camp site by the river coming from the glacier. 

Will strikes a pose.



Finally we hike (I rode) to Base Camp at 10,200 feet where we spent two nights overlooking the glacier. Spectacular!

The ridge running from centre to upper left is the five peaks of the Tavan Bogd, which means Five Prophets or Five Saints. On the far right of the photo is Malchin Peak; the ridge denotes the border with Russia. Four of our group climbed the ridge to about 12,500 feet. Weather was closing in and the wind on the ridge picked up so they wisely turned back before reaching the summit at 13,290 feet. Between Malchin and Tavan Bogd, behind the little triangular peak sticking out of the glacier, is the tri-point with China and Russia.



Mist off the glacier never turned to rain.



This picture provides a better view of Malchin and the Russian frontier on the right.



Last hiking day is down to the ranger station where we will meet our 4X4s for the drive back to Ulgii. It's over :( 

Eddie and our horses; we haven't seen herds of animals for a couple of days; a happy rider.

Overall

What a pleasure it was to see this part of the world and meet Carbai's extended family of Kazakh nomads before the place is overrun with tourists. As it is, travelers on the Who Knew (Hunnu) Air flight to Ulaan Baatar and the Air China flight to Beijing the next day were overwhelmingly Westerners with backpacks -- where the backpackers trek today, the luxury glamping folks will follow, and that means one of the major impediments to getting there (the state of the roads) will get sorted out, allowing all sorts of people to wander in. These people won't put up with bad roads, and they certainly won't put up with open air pit latrines, even if the views are superb. This is economically good from a development standpoint, but ... 

The trip certainly got me out of my comfort zone, but not too far out! At least there was no wildlife actively trying to kill me. It will be hard to top this.

Appendix: Comparison with Iceland

Don't laugh, there is a lot in common: 

• Both countries have wide flat plains bordered by rugged mountains. These plains are grasslands, gravel and sand in shades of grey, green and brown in Mongolia; black lava fields in Iceland (although we encountered at least one lava field in Mongolia).
• Neither country has much in the way of trees or bushes to hide behind if, as the saying goes, you need to see a man about a horse. Iceland has rocks to hide behind, but Mongolia largely does not.
• Traffic will grind to a halt in both countries because of livestock lying around on main roads. Livestock roam freely around the whole of both countries. Iceland only has sheep; in Mongolia just about every domestic animal can be found loose wandering around on the highway: dogs, cows, horses, sheep, goats, camels, even yaks. Mongolian drivers just plow into the herds with horns blaring, and this approach seems to clear the road fairly effectively.
• Lots of roads which are marked on the maps are in fact of very poor quality, typically involving fords over streams. In Iceland they maintain these roads to a certain degree; in Mongolia if there is a muddy bit, people start going around with the result that you have multiple routes across a prairie. Picking the right one is an art because you can wind up in a gully or gulch and have to back track; also the erosion and soil compaction due to acres of road where a single lane would do must be significant. 
• Lots of 4X4 vans full of tourists. In Iceland these are jacked-up Land Rovers, Mercedes Benz mini-buses or Ford F350 Expeditions on high-flotation tires (for crossing glacial muck); in Mongolia it is modern Japanese or Korean SUVs or 4X4 vans on military-style off-road tires, or crude Russian UAZ-452 vans. Hint: stay away from the Russian vans.
• Icelandic ponies are genetically related to Mongolian ponies. Iceland strictly prohibits importation of horses in order to preserve genetic purity of the Icelandic pony, but Mongolian horses are cross-bred at times with imports. Both are sturdy little animals designed to survive difficult winters.
• Doors with low lintels! I have several new bumps on my admittedly hard head to prove this.
• Iceland is just beginning to deal with a tourist boom. Mongolia’s boom is coming, too, as us baby boomers avoid places like Egypt which used to be 'safe' but are now full of nutbars with guns.
• Currencies with lots of zeroes: To convert Icelandic Krona to Canadian dollars, take off two zeros; to convert Mongolian Tugrik, take off three zeros and divide by two.