This Article first appeared in
AAC(UK) Newsletter 176
published Winter 2007
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All 3 photographs by John Hardwick.
Skinning up the Potanina glacier towards the triple border summit of Malchin (centre)
The base camp gers after the storm with Huiten (left) and Malchin (right)
Bactrian camels arrive at base camp for ferrying our kit back down to the road head
Last updated 11 July 2008
Skiing near the Back of Beyond
by John Hardwick
## Note: although this article appeared in the AAC(UK) Newsletter, it is not about an AAC(UK) Meet ##
Inner or Outer? A question from friends when I said I was going to Mongolia for a holiday! Inner lies within northern China; Outer is the Mongolian state that comprises a high plateau some 2000 miles wide raised during the Himalayan orogeny but lies 1,700 miles north of the Himalaya. The Russian Altai built during more ancient mountain building cycles sits on this plateau and extends into western Mongolia and along the Chinese border as far south as the Gobi desert. In the north western corner the range culminates in Huiten1 at 4373m, the highest of the Tavan Bogd.
Most Europeans may associate Mongolia with Genghis Khan. In the 13th century he ruthlessly created the largest contiguous empire ever, extending from China as far as Austria. With the Soviet Union effectively controlling the country until recently, the exploration of the mountains was mainly the preserve of eastern block mountaineers. Huiten was first climbed in 1956 by the Russian Pieskariow.
The Mongolians are mainly Buddhists but at our destination in the west the people are nomadic herders of Kazakh origin and Muslim. With winter temperatures down to -20°C, life is harsh.
With only 2.5 million inhabitants the country has virtually no roads so travel in the remote areas remains slow. After flying from the capital Ulan Baator to Olgii, we travelled a day by jeep off road to get to the Tavan Bogd National Park entrance only 150 miles from Olgii. From here there was a 12 km walk to base camp with kit and provisions carried by Bactrian camels.
Base Camp is at about 2900m and in May it is spring. Despite Mongolia being the Land of Blue Sky the weather here was very changeable: sunshine and snow showers but also very windy. We set up our two man tents adjacent to a large lateral moraine of the Potanina glacier; a long valley glacier fed directly by the snow fields of the northern Tavan Bogd and by the Alexandroff glacier that receives some of massif's southern snows.
Our Mongolian helpers had set up a couple of gers (traditional dwellings constructed from felt canvas on a wooden trellis) that served as mess and cook tents though one of these was blown down in the strong winds of our first night. This prevented our desired early start; instead we went for a recce up the Alexandroff glacier. This would have led to the Chinese border but we were skinning into the clouds in poor visibility so we turned around and skied down.
This was a pity as the region is of importance in the history of the exploration of the Tavan Bogd. The Russian biologist Sapoznikov explored it in the first decade of the 20th century and named a beautiful cone shaped mountain at the end of the southern ridge bounding the glacier as "Mt Snow Church". Polish mountaineers seeing a photograph of this in Sapoznikov's report in the archives of The University of Warsaw were inspired to visit the region. The ensuing Polish Mongolian expedition of 1976 made first ascents of 14 summits including Snow Church, Eagle Peak2 and Malchin4 as well as the 2nd and 3rd ascents of Huiten. After the departure of the Soviets in 1990 the area became open to westerners and an Anglo American expedition made further 1st ascents in 1992 including a new route on Huiten by its SW ridge that they called the "Back of Beyond".
The next day dawned clear, the mountains serene; we rose early and were away from the moraine edge at 5.30am. Individuals may seek satori in climbing high remote snow mountains but for me, only conscious anxiety: "Should I have done more training and lost more weight; will I make it to the top?" We skinned up the gentle slope of the Potanina glacier towards the triple border summit of Nairamdal3. The ascent took about 5 hours and from the top we got a glimpse of the dramatic Russian Altai-Sayan range to the north before the cloud closed in.
The next day the wind resumed and some team members only made it as far as the moraine before making a sensible choice and retreating to the tents. The rest of us headed up the glacier but cut off east to the back of Malchin4 where the wind blew us over; the summit was out of the question. In compensation we had a brief illicit ski down into Russia.
Huiten is often not climbed during short expeditions due to poor conditions even in summer. Nevertheless in 2002 an All Women Expedition made ski descents of all five of the Tavan Bogd summits but in a five week expedition. We had only two weeks and had already lost time with bad weather impeding camel transport so, fearing getting snowed in we decided to retreat early and endured another bone crunching jeep ride to visit mountains further south. Here the weather was better; however while Tsaast UuI (literally snow mountain) at 4193m appeared an ideal ski mountain from a distance, its northern slopes were wind scoured and icy and the snow line would have necessitated a long climb carrying skis. Therefore we opted to drive round to the south and climbed the mountain on foot.
The history of mountaineering in Mongolia is relatively recent but with an expanding economy it is likely that the nomadic traditions will die out and the adventures available to the early ascensionists will rapidly become more and more sanitized until cheap air travel is no longer possible. As our guide, Jim Blyth remarked, now is the Golden Age for adventure tourism.
The Tavan Bogd:
1 Huiten (Cold) 4374m;
2 Burget (Eagle) 4068m;
3 Nairamdal (Friendship) 4104rn;
4 Malchin (Hunter) 4051m and Olgii (Cradle)
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Last updated: 17 December 2007