Trip Reports

Mongolia Climber - 2 to 17 August '10

Written by Leader Paul Donovan, September 2010

The majority of the team met up in Heathrow for our initial flight to Moscow. After a short delay, we continued onto Ulaan Bator (UB), arriving early morning on Day 2. Here we met Anne & Alan (team members) before continuing onto our hotel to meet with George, our final team member. The team was now complete & we were ready for our Mongolian experience.

After a day of culture in UB, it was time to head west with a 4 hour flight to Bayan Olgii, where we met our local team & transport to take us on a 6 hour drive to the Bogd Tavan National Park & the start of our trek to base camp. One of our vehicles needed some maintenance enroute, which meant that we were pitching camp in the dark & eating very late. A leisurely start to our first trekking day allowed us to recharge our batteries after traveling for the past 3 days. It was well worth it as our views en route to base camp were stunning. Views of the mountains we were due to climb, soon came into view, providing us with an opportunity to check out our route up the glacier since it appeared heavily crevassed. On arrival at base camp, we pitched camp, which included our local guides putting up 2 Gers (yurts) for a kitchen & dining area. What a luxury! With camp pitched, it was time to chill out, take in the scenery & await the cook team.

With Base Camp established, it was time for us to begin our acclimatisation process with a trek to the Russian border at 3,555m from where we had views into Russia, as well as excellent views of 2 of our objectives - Khuten & Malchin, along with their respective ascent routes. And all this before lunch. It was now time to refresh our ropework skills in preparation for the glacial training refresher session. After a stormy night we awoke to sunshine & strong cold winds. Ideal conditions for us as we made our way up to the glacier for a refresher on glacial training. It was also an ideal opportunity to check out the route on the glacier for the next day. After a successful journey on the ice, up to the helicopter crash site, we retraced our steps, left all our glacial kit for the morning & headed back to camp for a late lunch. It was now time to prepare for our ascent of Khuten & Narandal - sorting out food, packing rucksacks etc. & await our early start.

We were away by 07:30 with fully laden rucksacks (15-20kg), on a mission to get to High Camp (3,785m). We reached the glacier in 2 hours & retrieved our crampons etc. & promptly kitted up. The glacier threw up no surprises until after lunch, when we hit a band of crevasses, into which a few of us entered momentarily. The sun continued to shine on us today, which provided us with excellent views of our route & the peaks around us. After 7.5 hours, we made High Camp, all fully aware of the arduous day they had just completed. It was now time to pitch camp, make a brew & have some food before turning in for the night, in preparation for yet another early start.

Unfortunately what came with the early start was a very strong cold wind, sleet & poor visibility so we decided to wait a while in the hope it would clear. By 10:00, it had cleared enough to attempt Narandal. The route took us to the top of the Potaniin Glacier & up to the col below the summit. Visibility cleared momentarily to show the way to our summit via a steep slope. Narandal, which translates to Friendship Peak sits in 3 countries - Mongolia, Russia & China. After putting a foot in each country, we descended back to High Camp for a brew & some lunch. We were greeted by a heavy snow storm & soon made cover for our tents for a siesta. The snow storm lasted for the next 24 hours, which certainly altered our plans to attempt Khuten. With the storm not abating, we packed up camp & had an interesting route back down the glacier, now covered in at least 4 inches of new snow which was cleverly hiding many crevasses, to base camp & our warm 'gers'. After a good nights sleep, the team were up for their next challenge - an ascent of Malchin, which was over 900m of ascent from Base Camp. This was achieved by most of the team in what can only be described as typical Scottish winter conditions. A second Mongolian summit & now it was time for us to make tracks out of the mountains. We had a 4 hour trek back to the Park Gates, followed by a 6 hour drive back to Olgii. After a stay in the local 'Ger' camp & a quick trip around Olgii, we were off again, on a 3 hour 'private' twin prop back to UB for yet more cultural experiences, including an excellent cultural show, a trek on Mount Tsetseguun; a vist of the ruins of Manzushir Monastery (a major centre of Buddhism), a visit to the Terejl National Park with it's fantastic granite intrusions & a final meal at the Veranda Restaurant before saying our farewells to those team members who were flying off in opposite directions to us. We departed Mongolia & headed for the UK.

Many thanks to all those who supported us in Mongolia - Graham & his office team, Andrew, Sandagash, Aidos, Janet, Bulga & our many drivers.

Well done to all the team members - George, Alan, Peter, Stew, Paul, Jenny, Dom, David, Martin & Anne for achieving their many goals along the way, including two summits - Mounts Narandal & Malchin. Mount Khuten will just have to wait for another day!

Congratulations to you all

Paul Donovan
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