Mongolia – Tavan Bogd

Tavan Bogd, Khuiten Peak – 14,350 ft

Highest Mountain in Mongolia
Eric and Matthew Gilbertson, with Nurka and Sunqar

July 14, 2016

Day 1: flight to Ulaanbaatar
Day 2: flight to Khovd, van to Olgii
Day 3: drive to army station camp
Day 4: hike to base camp
Day 5: summit, return to army camp
Day 6: drive back to Olgii
Day 7: Packraft the Khovd river
Day 8: Packraft the Khovd river, jeep ride back to khovd
Day 9: flight to Ulaanbaatar
Day 10: flight out

Tavan Bogd is one of the farther places in the world from an ocean, nearly 1,500 miles from the nearest beach. It is located on the western edge of Mongolia, near the intersection of the Russia, Kazakhstan and China borders, not far from the pole of inaccessibility of the Eurasian continent. The countryside around Tavan Bogd is largely uninhabited in all directions, making the mountain very difficult to reach.

The mountain does get climbed on a regular basis in the summertime, and requires no more than basic glacier travel skills. However, the summit ridge requires careful navigation to avoid a cliff on the east face. Unfortunately, in the summer of 2015 a group of climbers got turned around on the summit ridge in a whiteout, and several died after falling off the east face. As a result of this accident, starting in 2016 the Mongolian government began requiring all climbers ascending Tavan Bogd to be accompanied by a licensed Mongolian guide.

In the spring of 2016 Matthew and I began planning an ambitious summer country highpointing itinerary to include

the Mongolia highpoint. Our plan was to first climb the Mongolia highpoint, and use this as acclimation to make a quick ascent of Mt Elbrus in Russia afterwards. Then we would move on to climb the much more technical Shkhara on the Russia/Georgia border.

We contacted several guiding companies in Mongolia, and eventually were connected with Nurbek and Sunqar, a brother-sister guiding team from Olgii, the nearest major town to Tavan Bogd. Over facebook messenger we negotiated a price and coordinated when we would meet.

Olgii is a popular tourist destination in the summertime, and by the time Matthew and I started looking into flights, all the flight to Olgii were sold out. There weren’t too many feasible ways to get to Olgii in our time frame. A bus would take 2 days, and car rental agencies required a driver from the company to accompany us, which would be really expensive. Plus, we’d heard that most of the roads in Mongolia are dirt, and driving could be extremely slow. In the end, we decided to fly to Khovd, the next closest town, and take a half-day jeep ride to Olgii, and it looked like logistics would still work out.

Day 0

I had just gotten back from a three-week climbing expedition in the Northwest Territories, Canada, and after a few rest days in Seattle got on a flight to China. I arrived in Beijing on July 9, and spent a 12-hour night layover vainly trying to sleep outside security.

Day 1

In the morning I met Matthew, and we flew together to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. We had to spend the night in Ulaan Baatar to wait for one of the infrequent flights out to Khovd the next morning.

Matthew had reserved a hostel in town, and we took a taxi there in the afternoon. We used the wifi at the hostel to communicate with Sunqhar and Nurbek, and learned that the permit we needed to climb Tavan Bogd in fact needed to be picked up in Ulaan Baatar, not Olgii. I think there was some confusion since the government had just instated new regulations for the peak a few months earlier.

This was no problem for us, since we had plenty of time left in Ulaan Baatar. But this just happened to be the

beginning of Naadam, a country-wide weeklong holiday, and no government facilities were open. The hostel owner helped us call around to try to find someone who could issue us the permit, but everyone had just left for the holidays earlier that day.

We had quite a few discussions between Nurbek, Sunqhar, and the hostel owner, but eve

ntually settled on a solution. The hostel owner was a retired military man, and said one of his military friends was the former teacher of the person in charge of border permits in Olgii. If we agreed to pay the former teacher a small bit of money to help cover his gasoline bill for travelling for Naadam, he would call the border permit person in Olgii and tell him to let us in without the permit.

It was complicated, but we agreed and finally rested easy that we would indeed be climbing Tavan Bogd as planned.

Day 2

We took a taxi to the airport in the morning, and soon boarded the flight to Khovd. We really wanted to fly to Olgii, but unfortunately there aren’t many flights there, and they all sell out far in advance for the summer season.

We had considered options of taking buses from Ulaan Baatar to Olgii, or renting a car and driving there. However, neither of these were practical. Most of the roads in Mongolia are dirt, so driving is slow and there’s a high risk of getting slowed down even more with flat tires. The bus option is a 2-day journey, and the rental car option is probably not much different. Also, as far as we could find, all rental car companies required you to pay for a Mongolian driver for the car, so it’s essentially a taxi service. Our best option turned out to be to fly to Khovd, and take a 4-hr jeep taxi on dirt roads to Olgii.

The flight to Khovd was amazing. We passed over huge expanses of rolling hills and deserts, only seeing occasional gers to signal people lived there. I can believe the fact that Mongolia is the least densely populated country on earth. On the plane one person brought two boxes of pizza as his carry on item. I suspect there aren’t too many pizza restaurants in Khovd, and he figured he’d bring a special treat.

We got off the plane, and we thought Nurbek had arranged a jeep taxi for us in Khovd. However, there was some miscommunication and our driver who met us at the airport didn’t actually have a vehicle that could make the long and rough drive to Olgii. We rode around town for a few hours trying to figure out the situation, and eventually found a guy with a big van who could make the drive. The van was much more room than we needed, and the guy’s family needed to go to Olgii anyways, so they loaded up in the van as well.

We took off out of town, careening down rough dirt roads into the middle of the vast uninhabited land north of town. The middle of Khovd consisted of buildings and some hotels, while on the outskirts were large clusters of Ghers people lived in. Eventually, we reached the vast open land, with no trees or signs of civilization, just grass and rolling hills.

The road system in Mongolia is like nothing you would find in the US. While there may have originally been one gravel road linking Khovd and Olgii, it is now a spaghetti-like network of a dozen or more parallel roads. It appears there isn’t very frequent maintenance on any particular road, so if one road gets too washboarded or washed out, drivers migrate over to a better parallel road, or just make their own new road. Drivers who make the trip often, like our driver, know exactly when to switch from one parallel road to another, always finding the smoothest path.

We rode about twice as fast as I would have driven myself, passing through vast open countryside. Occasionally we had to drive through creeks, and on the sides of the road we would see roaming camels. After a few hours we stopped at a small building at the halfway point, and went inside to drink tea and eat some noodles. We soon got back in the van and driving. As we reached the outskirts of Olgii the road changed to pavement, and the rest of the ride was surprisingly smooth.

By late afternoon we met up with Nurbek and Sunqar and had tea at their house. We still didn’t have the permit, so we walked down the road a bit to an official government building. Matthew and I waited outside with Sunqar while Nurbek went inside to negotiate. It appeared there had still been some miscommunication between our contact in Ulaan Baatar and the permit person who we had supposedly bribed, and we in fact would not be given permission to climb the mountain. But Nurbek still secured a permit to hike near the border zone, and we figured that might still get us close enough to accidentally stray over to tag the summit without anyone caring.

That night we had a great feast at Nurbek and Sunqar’s house, and as Sunqar translated Nurbek’s father told us about his guiding days on Tavan Bogd. He was one of the most successful guides in Mongolia in the area, even having brought the Mongolian President to the summit. He was now passing on his expertise to his children.

Day 3

The next morning we loaded up our supplies in an old soviet-era van and one of Nurbek’s friends started driving us out of town into the mountains. In western Mongolia it’s not really possible or a good idea to just rent a car and drive to the Tavan Bogd trailhead. There are essentially zero services for the 8 hour drive, and in many places there is not even an official road. Everyone has to be completely self sufficient, being able to repair any issues with a vehicle, and bringing extra fuel. Our driver was an expert at navigating the route and repairing the vehicle. He wouldn’t be climbing the mountain with us, but would wait in base camp a few days until we returned.

We soon left town and started driving into the open steppe. Most of the time we followed a dirt road, but occasionally

we just drove across the open grass with no road in sight. We passed gers with yaks and camels outside, and eventually met up with another vehicle heading to Tavan Bogd. It was a jeep with a driver bringing a family from Ulaan Baatar out to see the mountains. It was a lot safer for all of us to travel as a group in case one vehicle broke down, so we were happy to join forces.

We took a few brakes to refuel and for the drivers to check up on the vehicles, and had to cross a few deep rivers that required scouting, but eventually we reached the park boundary in the late afternoon. There was a gate across the road (that one could easily drive around), a small building to house a few military men, and a ger where some locals lived.

I was a bit nervous that the military guys would see our ice axes and we would get in trouble for only having a hiking permit, not a mountaineering permit. But our driver stepped out and gave one of the guys a big hug, and from then on the military guys were only interested in catching up with their old friend (our driver), than in checking our permits.

That night hiked around a bit with Sunqar, Nurbek, and a kid from the other vehicle who was riding a horse. We went over the plan for the ascent, then pitched our tent near a stream and went to bed. Sunqar and the driver would stay back at base camp while Matthew, Nurbek and I would climb the mountain over the next three days.

Day 4

In the morning Sunqar cooked us all an excellent breakfast and we continued up from camp. The route from camp

follows a 4×4 track that jeeps could make, but it appeared too rugged for our old van. Nurbek said some groups hire horses or camels from the people in the ger at the trailhead to make it up to the edge of the glacier, though we were fine walking.

After a few hours we reached a monument commemorating the ascent of the president of Mongolia a few years

earlier, and Nurbek pointed out his father’s name on the plaque. We soon reached the end of the driveable section at the edge of the glacier, and saw the family from Ulaan Baatar had driven up there in their jeep and were out taking pictures. This was the edge of our base camp, at 10,000ft on the edge of the Potaniin Glacier. We got a good view of Tavan Bogd from base camp, and it was an impressive snowy peak sticking out of the surrounding Alexander and Potaniin Glaciers, right on the border with China and very close to the border of Russia.

The area sees quite a few hikers and climbers, and has many established camp sites and a nice outhouse facility. We sat down with Nurbek to discuss our plan, and he said based on our speed hiking up we could probably shave a day off the normal schedule. Instead of hauling gear up to establish an intermediate camp at the col north of the peak, we could probably just move fast and hit the summit the next morning and hike back to base camp.

That sounded great to me and Matthew, so we decided to go to sleep early for an alpine start.

Day 5

We got up around 1am and were soon moving on a climbers trail paralleling the glacier. Nurbek led the way, and we

soon got onto the glacier and roped up. The glacier was pretty benign, and we didn’t encounter any major crevasses. By sunrise around 5am we reached the base of the northeast ridge of Khuiten Peak, the highest peak of the Tavan Bogd group. Malchin peak was illuminated to the northeast, and we saw another group that was still camping at the col between Khuiten and Malchin. Nurbek said this is where most groups establish an intermediate camp.

Nurbek led the way up the ridge, which was steep enough that we needed to take the ice axes out. After an hour or so of kicking steps we crested the ridge, and then made the short walk over to the summit. Nurbek took out a Mongolian flag that we proudly displayed. It was amazing to look down into China below us to the west, to look into the plains of southern Russia to the north, and then the glaciers of Mongolia below us to the east. There was no sign of civilization in any direction and we truly felt remote.

Nurbek had been up many times before, but it looked like he was still enjoying the trip. The weather was excellent, and after a short break we headed back down. As we descended the ridge another group was ascending, and I’m sure they appreciated the trail we had broken.

We made it back down to base camp by mid day and took a short food break. Apparently we were ahead of schedule, and we decided to just hike all the way back to base camp that afternoon. The hike down went quickly, and Sunqar was surprised to see us back so early. She quickly cooked up a good dinner for us and we exchanged stories about the past few days. A few of the drivers had taken Sunqar out to hunt marmots the other day, and that evening they cooked some of their catch and offered it to all of us. Mongolian marmot actually tastes really good, especially after climbing a big mountain.

We camped out again that night, and started driving out the next morning.

Day 6

The drive back to Olgii was as fun as before, and we got back early enough to see some of the Nadaam festivities

around town. Sunqar brought us to the Mongolian wrestling event, and then we played a pickup soccer game with a bunch of Nurbek’s friends. We spent the night at Nurbek and Sunqar’s house that night, and still had a few more days before we flew out.

Day 7

We had come prepared just in case we finished early, though, and had brought packrafts. The next morning we drove

out of town with Nurbek, Sunqar, and a few of their friends to a small pond on the edge of the Khovd River. Everyone got a turn paddling around in the packrafts, and then eventually Matthew and I packed up and started hiking up the river while the rest of the crew returned to town. Our plan was to camp out along the river, then paddle back to town the next day.

It was fun hiking up the Khovd river, and after a few hours we found a good campsite and set up camp for the night.

Day 8

The next morning we packed up our gear in our boats and paddled back to town. The river was class 1/2 with only a few small rapids, but was very scenic. One good thing about rivers in Mongolia is there are no downed trees in the water, because there are hardly any trees in western Mongolia.

We made it back to town that afternoon, then after meeting back up with Sunqar and her family we found a jeep to take us back to Khovd. The driver somehow managed to squeeze ten people in a jeep with only five seats, so it wasn’t quite as comfortable as before. We got a flat tire on the way, but he was an expert and had it switched out in five minutes. That night we stayed in a hotel in Khovd, then flew to Ulan Baatar in the morning. After one more night in Ulan Baatar we flew out to Moscow in the morning towards our next mountain, Elbrus.

Nurbek and Sunqar can be contacted through their website (climbtavanbogd.wordpress.com)

Summit video: