Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

September 8, 2024

4356m

Tavan Bogd National Park, Mongolia/China

Khüiten Uul is the highest peak in Mongolia as well as the second highest in the entire Altai Mountains, bordering China’s Xinjiang province and only a few kilometers from Russia. This is the single most attractive mountaineering objective in Mongolia as the landscape in this Tavan Bogd National Park is very different from the rest of the country. The size of these glaciers are comparable to the bigger ranges and the weather is often unpredictable. This peak has been climbed in winter but the 8000m gears were required. In summer time this peak isn’t terribly difficult but one needs some luck with the fickle weather, and much of the difficulty in tagging Mongolia’s highest peak can be the logistics to even reach the start of the trek. A guide (to climb the peak) and border permits (to even visit the area) are legally required and there are various touring companies out there. Most packages involve at least a week out and back from the small city of Ölgii, the gateway to the far western corner of Mongolia.

Most of the trip reports would start from the traveling logistics to this city of Ölgii but mine would be different, as this was towards the very end of the 40-day quest to climb 17 Mongolian “Ultras” (peaks with 1500 m prominence). This was very different than the majority of trips here in which climbers only went after the country high points. But why putting the most important objective towards the very end? That’s because Petter, my partner for the first 15 Ultras had already climbed this peak back in 2019 so my only option was to add an additional week to do the two extras on my own. This turned out to be problematic because the conditions on Khüiten Uul could be very “out” in September. I however, knew nothing about this and only brought 3-season cloths and footwear. I was able to solve all the associated problems in situ but the success was a hard earned one. It’s probably one of the harder pushes I’ve done mentally and physically and the success required a combination of Gangaa’s expertise in the area’s logistics, Naraa bringing his horses and willing to make a car-to-car attempt and my determination and strength in trail-breaking and “winter mountaineering” in general. Missing one of the three legs this would not be possible. I met various parties on different part of this mountain and no one else was able to summit in this same window.

I had booked a low budget package with Gangaamaa Expedition (~2300 USD) for 6 days in the western Mongolia and the original plan was to only climb Khüiten, but I ended up paying 300 USD extras for the inclusion of Tsambagarav which is one of the 17 “ultras”. I flew from Ulaanbaatar to Ölgii on the 4th and back on the 10th and Gangaa would be with me the entire time. The weather was far from being ideal. While the first two days were sunnier there were high winds, and then a major winter storm would blow in on the 6th bringing 30 cm of snow. I ended up using the first two days’ of mediocre window to climb Tsambagarav where the winds weren’t as bad. Our only possible climbing window for Khüiten would be on the 8th and because of the lowered budget we wouldn’t have camels to make carries to higher camps. Gangaa did promise to push the Landcruiser to as high as possible but from wherever we ended up parking, the summit push had to be done car-to-car. On the 6th we did as planned, drove westwards from Ölgii on increasingly bad roads for the majority of the day to the park’s north gate. We actually took the White River valley towards the south gate but took a connector later. Again, the driver and Gangaa knew the area well enough that I simply let them making any decision. I didn’t even bother to consult with the GPS as the driving route we took was completely different than Rob’s track from earlier in the year. The strong winds turned into wet snow as we stopped at the park’s gate and the ranger told us that the higher passes were completely snowed in and closed for vehicular access. Most of the climbing packages start trekking from this spot as this is the logical place to start the acclimatization process, but I was already well acclimatized on the other peaks. We did as planned and pushed onward but the ranger was correct. Our Landcruiser was only able to make to about 6 km past the gate, and we had to settle for the night below the first pass. We had to set up camp in the blizzard and it was getting dark. Our climbing guide Naraa arrived a few hours later in the dark with two horses and one dog, from his home in that White River valley. From this location the round trip distance would be 40 km and who knew how much snow had fallen up high. We had been told that the conditions were already “out” even before this big dump of snow. The stoke level was not high but we agreed to at least give it a try.

The forecast of the summit day was calling for -15C ambient temperatures with 30 km/h head winds so my clothing system would not make do, especially if we rode the horses (so not moving much ourselves). I was able to borrow a wool t-shirt from Petter, a toque and buff from Gangaa and more importantly, a down parka from Naraa. My gloves and boots were on the light side but there’s not much I could do. I did wear the Trango Techs in similar temperatures back at home but I could not afford stopping much. The entire day of the 7th was spent at our riverside car-camp resting. The sun did show up for a few hours in the afternoon but clouds rolled back in and we were back in a blizzard in the evening. We woke up at 2:30 am as planned but it was still howling with precipitation. Gangaa and Naraa refused to start and Naraa’s parents even called in a few times, begging us to not go. I said well, we could start a few hours later in daylight and aim to only do Malchin Peak and they reluctantly agreed. Had we started earlier as planned this day would not be so rushed but very few people are as determined as myself and I must accept that. I didn’t manage to fall back to sleep so I woke them up at 5:30 am and we eventually started at around 6:30 am with enough light to not use headlamps. Gangaa made some ramen soup for us and Naraa did his job setting up the horses in the brutally cold winds.

I had absolutely no idea about horse riding and it seemed like I would jump straight into the real game in some harsh environment. Back in 2019 I brought a brand new packraft (never assembled it) straight into an 8-day expedition with class 3 rapids, and I also rode my first motorcycle in Indonesia without any safety equipment so I’m used to this game. I also did my first ever rappel in situ on an alpine climbing trip. No experience, no problem. The horse riding turned out to be much harder than I thought but that might be due to Naraa being adventurous. For the initial 7 km to President’s Ovoo we were essentially following the snowed-in road but Naraa led the horses mostly off-road. Naraa also liked to run his horses and I got extremely uncomfortable bouncing so I had to tell him to slow down a few times. The sun came out eventually revealing a stunning horizon as we slowly descended towards the “base camp”. There was one creek crossing that the horses opted to jump across. I fell backwards and thankfully landed on snow, and even if I were to do it again I probably would still fall off as I had no clue how to keep up with the horse without much to grab onto. To my surprise my fingers and toes were not frozen yet but I did bundle myself up with all the layers that I had. We passed a large group at basecamp and they were still waiting for the weather. We later learned that a few of them had gone to the high camp in the previous day but their tracks were completely eliminated by the winds so the trail-breaking duty was still on us. Naraa was able to drive the horses a few kilometers further all the way to the base of Malchin Peak and that was a pleasant surprise. But much of this stage was on narrow paths or side-hilling and there were enough rocks on the ground that falling off would no longer be an option. I was already mentally exhausted by the time we finally parked the horses but I also convinced Naraa that we must try Khüiten Peak instead of Malchin Peak.

Naraa hesitated for about 10 minutes and made a few calls (surprisingly there’s cell reception on much of the route), but eventually reluctantly agreed to try. Naraa led us descending the tedious moraine onto the glacier and even this stretch was difficult due to the fresh snow. The glacier was as expected, a post-holing nightmare but thankfully the nightmare was not completely continuous. For about half of the distance we would post-hole knee deep so it was sort of manageable. Naraa and I each took a long lead up the lower tongue and we stopped at the crevasse field to don crampons, harness and rope. Naraa, being up there for over 30 times led us through the difficult zone but still fell in waist deep one time. The crevasses were obscured by the fresh snow making navigation exceptionally tricky. I then took turn plowing through increasingly deep snow afterwards, aiming at the rocky island which was also known as the high camp. Naraa did one more long lead but from about 3600m elevation, about 2 km from the high camp it was all on myself. The situation thankfully improved as we traversed on the side of that rocky island and I didn’t even manage to stop at the high camp. There were two tents perched and a group was descending from that triple-border peak but we plodded directly across the camp for another kilometer to the base of Khüiten Peak, dealing with more post-holing but not as terrible as lower down. I had been hoping that Naraa could at least offload 50% of the trail-breaking duty because he was definitely faster than me on simpler terrain based on the other climbs we did earlier in this big trip, but post-holing and snow climbing is my absolute expertise. Naraa ended up doing about 1/4 of the work but I had to consider that as acceptable. At least he was able to keep up from behind when I maxed out my plowing pace. Most people back at home would not be able to keep up even if I broke trail ahead.

The trail-breaking duty increased drastically at the base of the climb, and Naraa completely checked out shortly after. I checked the GPS map and there was still 600 vertical meters to the summit. I told him that I would aim to summit in 1-1.5 hours, untied the rope and went ahead solo. Naraa reluctantly plodded back to the high camp and waited for me there. The climb could be broken down into 3 sections. The lower stage was mostly knee deep post-holing on 35-degrees slope and I made my way straight up the middle of it. The middle section was on the soured side so instead of trail-breaking I got to deal with sastrugi and melt-freeze crusts. I was able to make quick work through this stretch but the winds were increasing and so was the altitude. There were several bands of rocks and to bypass the higher band I had to make a few moves on bare ice. It was a bit committed without taking the ice axe out but again, steep snow climbing was my expertise. The slope able maxed out at around 40 degrees and though exposed, the runout was not deadly. The upper 1/3 was actually the crux as I got back into some deep snow and this time I was wallowing crotch deep in the deposited zone. The upward progress was very slow for a while but again, the worst was not continuous. The worst was to gain the summit plateau/ridge where I must use my fists, elbows and knees to plow a trench like a dog, but it only lasted for about 10 vertical meters. I finally needed a break afterwards but did manage to gather enough strength to plow through the final 200 horizontal meters to the summit, at least the one that everyone else stopped at. The SW summit was just as high according to the previous party’s hand level survey but no one was permitted to go there due to various reasons. Technically this would be straightforward but the guides thought that peak was completely in China hence off limit, but I don’t think so. In any case I was there alone so I could have gone for it but in the current conditions it would take me at least an hour to come back, so nope. I must focus on getting back before dark, if possible. I checked the phone and it had taken me about 1 hour 40 minutes to solo the final 600 m climb, sort of as promised.

I was already at my physical limit so the descent wasn’t as fast as I was hoping for. For the upper 1/3 I had to make additional post-holing as the winds had already filled in the tracks and for that middle 1/3 I again refused to take the ice axe out. Down-traversing that icy stretch was definitely sketchy but I was able to handle it so might as well save some time. Plunging down the lower 1/3 was fast and furious but I had to make additional post-holing back across the glacial plateau towards the high camp, now with slight uphill angle. Naraa saw me struggling so came back to help me a little bit. The other group had already packed up and started their descent, but we ended up catching up to and passed them lower down. Naraa and I made the downwards dash as fast as humanly possible and we needed only one break somewhere in the middle of the glacier. Following our own tracks down was definitely easier but still not “easy” as we definitely looked like a drunk pair. My downwards strides are also much bigger than the uphill post-holes that we made and I’m not a fast walker based on frequency of strides so I had to work 100% hard to keep up with Naraa. Minutes after passing the other team the trail-breaking duty was back on ours as the winds had filled in the holes again. Naraa eventually called for another break but I thought that was not entirely needed, so slowly made my way back to the horses. That final uphill was brutal.

Setting up the horses took time so the other group caught up and passed us. Naraa kindly offered to carry their tents and rope back to the basecamp so by the time we got there we were welcomed for a dinner stop. We had earned enough time for some socialization but that couldn’t be hours long, so we eventually had to get out for that final 10 km ride back to our camp. My asses were hurting really bad from the sitting so I had to slow him down for quite a bit. No more aggressive running and definitely no jumping. It was still sort of a race with darkness and we did eventually get back without turning on the head-lamps, but that final half an hour’s descent from the pass was brutal. Naraa led an aggressive steep descent on rough terrain and I had to give all my energy trying to stay on the horse back. Our round trip time was exactly 14 hours but only 10 hours were moving. The rest of the team was welcoming us with another massive dinner and I eventually got to sleep at around 10:30 pm. There were plenty of difficult mountains that made me as tired in BC, Washington and Alberta but the last time I got so exhausted from an oversea trip was Mt. Everest. The next day I woke up with sore muscles all over my body and I struggled to even walk without pain. While checking out at the park’s gate that ranger could not believe that I actually had climbed the peak. Everyone (including Gangaa and Naraa) was saying it’s impossible. I had to show the ranger my pictures to make him believe that it was actually possible… We drove back to Ölgii for another night and then woke up at 3:20 am for another few hours of drive to Khovd for the flight back to Ulaanbaatar. Unfortunately this flight got rescheduled and we were not being told. We ended up waiting 5 hours at the airport but the flight did take off, thankfully.