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Expedition to Altai Tavan Bogd National Park, Mongolia
Mongolia has been a dream for a long time. Colin and Betty, along with 4 other New Zealand
climbers, spent several weeks in the Altai Mountains of far western Mongolia in the
northern summer. After a week in Ulaan Baatar buying provisions and attending
the spectacular Nadaam festival (archery, wrestling and horseracing are the 3 main events)
we flew 4 hours across country to the provincial capital Olgii. A day and half in jeeps and
half a day on foot with horses and camels carrying our gear took us to a superb base camp in
the meadows alongside the Potanina glacier. Over the next 2 weeks we enjoyed sunny settled
weather and climbed several peaks including Mongolia's highest, Mt Huiten (4374m).
Nadaam Festival
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Tavan Bogd
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Accompanied by the national park director and his family, we spent another week travelling in
traditional style with horses and camels through a region of lakes, forests and wide-open steppes
in the southern part of the park. We fished in the crystal clear rivers, drank copious quantities
of tea with the tremendously hospitable herders in their summer ger encampments, lazed beside the
extensive lakes and rode high into the mountains that form the border with Xingjiang China. As a
result of the trip one member of our group, Dave Bamford of Tourism Resource Consultants, has been
running a NZ government funded national park training project in the area.
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Horse trekking near Lake Khovan
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Camels in base camp, Tavan Bogd
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Khazak woman and baby
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On the Summit of Mount Huiten, highest peak in Mongolia
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