Mongolia Cybercast

7/22/06
It's 4:30 am here in Seoul and myself and the gang have just landed having left Ulaanbaatar at 1:20 am local time. Our last couple of days in Mongolia's capital couldn't have been more pleasant- and fun! We of course had a great celebration dinner at an excellent restaurant Friday night after returning from Olgii in the morning. The afternoon was filled with hot showers and naps- 2 things these guys have been talking about for a while. Everyone was also able to jump on the internet and get in touch with loved ones... as well as checking the Tour de France updates! Yesterday we toured the Gangden Monastery and the the museum of the Chojin Lama which were both beautiful and fascinating- lots of great photos. We then spent most of the early afternoon looking at Mongolian antiques, picking up souvenirs, and combing the many cashmere shops. Then again last night we had our final dinner together followed by a couple of beers at the Chinggis Khan brewery pub. The trip was a wonderful experience for everyone and we truly enjoyed each other's company in this stunning country. The diversity of the land and the incredible warmth of the people make it hard not to fall in the love with this area. Having everyone climb both peaks was a special bit of icing on the cake. It's safe to say that the group has headed home with smiles and good memories which many of you will hear about soon. Thanks again to the great local staff and outfitter and thanks to the team for making it a trip to remember- Bill, Joe, Paul, Geoff, Kristine, and Graham- the Mongolian 2006 Team. All my best - Dave.

7/21/06
Hello everybody it is Friday the 21st, 7:30 am in Olgii and we are at the airport just about ready to fly back to Ulaan Baatar and leave this western Kazak region of Mongolia. The last couple of days have been great, we had an eventful ride out on horses, everyone had there own horse riding out of base camp back to our road head. We spent the evening there and we had a little bit of a celebration as well. Yesterday we spent the day doing some touring in the country side and then drove back to Olgii where we spent the night last night. Yesterday we visited many different Kazak families and their gers and drank lots of tea, lots of airak( the fermented mare’s milk) and lots of different dairy products which is a staple of the Kazak region here. Yesterday we also saw an eagle hunter. It was an interesting day, a long day in the jeeps but there were lots of breaks and lots of good times meeting some of the local families and herders. Last night we were in Olgii, we had a celebratory beer and said good bye to our local staff here in the western region. We look forward to getting back to Ulaan Baatar, getting some showers, checking into a hotel and having some good food and then having another night here with the whole gang before we leave tomorrow night on our flights back home. We will give you one more call tomorrow and that’s all for now. Talk to you soon.

7/18/06
Hello out there it is Tuesday the 18th here in Mongolia at about 10:30 pm and everyone here has just about gone to bed back at base camp. We had a great few days up on the glacier. Yesterday after climbing the highest point in Mongolia, a few of the guys had a little itch to get some more activity in so they actually went out and some of us climbed Nairandal. This morning we woke up to clear skies after having a really windy and ugly afternoon in terms of weather up at high camp. This morning we woke up and the rest of us went up Nairandal. So in the two days that we were up there everybody has climbed to the highest point and everybody has made it up Nairandal as well. The summit of Nairandal marks the point at which Mongolia, Russia and China all come together. We had a great bunch of days up on the glaciers, an exciting decent this afternoon and then a great evening also. All of the guys are sleeping in the Mongolian ger tonight and tomorrow we have horses coming in to take us out to the trail head in the afternoon. We also had a chance to sample some of the airak, the traditional alcohol in this Kazak region which is made from fermented mare’s milk. Anyway everyone is quite content and happy and we have had a great few days. We will be in touch soon, all the best—Dave.

7/17/06
Hello everybody it is Monday the 17th here in Mongolia and it is about noon and we are all resting up in our tents. We just summited the highest point in the country this morning and everybody was there, we had a great time. At seven am we stood on the summit: Bill, Joe, Paul, Jeff, Kristine, myself and our local operator (…transmission break…) This afternoon the weather started to come in a bit but this morning we had clear skies on the way up and beautiful views out over China and north to Russia. We had a few lenticulars as we started our decent, so a little bit of wind and some exciting weather and now we are all resting up hoping that tomorrow we will be able to climb Nairandal. So everyone here is having a great time, lots of success, lots of fun and we hope for good weather the rest of our trip. Up here on the glacier and then back out to Olgii and then back to Ulaan Baatar. We will be speaking to you soon, that’s all from Mongolia and Dave, we will be in touch, bye.

7/16/06
Hey there everybody this is just a quick update from Mongolia, we are going to be calling in with a longer cybercast tomorrow. It is Sunday the 16th and it’s about 8:00pm and the whole group is up here at high camp. We had a beautiful day this morning so we were able to leave base camp, we left around 5:30 and about six and half hours later we were here at high camp. We had a great afternoon just hanging out and now everyone is in bed, ready to be woken up in about six hours from now. The mountain looks beautiful and everybody is hoping for good weather tomorrow. We’ll call you from the mountain or when we are back at high camp. We plan on being here tomorrow night as well and then climbing Nairandal the following day. Best wishes from Mongolia, speak to you soon -- Dave

7/15/06
Hello everyone once again from Mongolia this is Dave calling in on the 15th of July, Saturday around noon. We are here at base camp today, again. Yesterday we had a beautiful hike in great weather up to about eleven and half or twelve thousand feet. We crossed over into Russia, stood at the border marker between Russia and Mongolia and then took a little deeper journey into Russia. We had a wonderful lunch with views of the highest points in the Altai Mountain Range, on the Russian side. We then came back to base camp yesterday afternoon and did some review. We got out the ropes and harnesses and everyone had a good time remembering how to use this stuff. So we had a great review and a wonderfully dinner last night. We went to bed hoping to be leaving for high camp this morning; we woke up to some rainy weather. We actually had rain all last night with not a lot of visibility this morning. So we spent the morning sitting around the fire, telling stories in our ger and chatting with some local Kazaks that are around. There are a few other teams in base camp here, mostly trekking and one other team that is hoping to climb as well. This afternoon we are going to get the Gore-Tex out and go for a stroll in this drizzly weather. Hope to set out tomorrow morning for our high camp. We are still looking to climb Mt Khuiten and also Nairandal. We were going to have an extra day here at base camp on our way back but we are going to use that up today and see what happens tomorrow. We will be in touch, everyone here sends their best wishes. Talk to you soon, bye-bye.

7/14/06
Good morning everyone this is Dave calling in from beautiful Mongolia on Friday the 14th. It’s about 7:30 am and everyone is slowly getting out of bed after a little bit of bed tea brought around to us by Eldos, our Mongolian-Kazak guide here at base camp. Yesterday we had a beautiful day, great weather, which is not always the case up here. We had about a six hour walk up to base camp where we currently are. This morning there are a little bit of high clouds and we will see what happens with the weather tomorrow. Today we are going to take a hike up to 11,500 feet. Right now we are at about 10,000 feet at base camp and we are going to have lunch just across the border in Russia. We are going to go up to the ridge line that separates Mongolia and Russia, there are a couple of posts marking the border and we are going to go sit there and have a nice lunch looking into Russia. The glaciers and the peaks look beautiful from base camp, we have a beautiful view of Mt Khuiten and Mt. Nairandal and we hope to climb both of them in the next few days. As long as the weather holds we will make our way up to high camp on the glacier tomorrow. Hopefully the following morning we will be summiting Khuiten and then the morning after that summiting Nairandal. That’s all weather dependent, we have a day here to burn if we need it. It looks like we have got some high cirrus clouds which may be indicating a change in the weather but we’ll see this afternoon. Everybody is looking forward to a good acclimatization hike today and the crew here is having a great time, everybody sends warm wishes to everyone back home. We will talk to you soon, bye-bye.

7/12/06
Hello everyone out there this is Dave Morton calling in for our 2006 Mongolia trek and climb. It is July 12th about 7 pm here in Mongolia and we have just arrived at the trail head. Everyone arrived safely in Ulaan Bataar a couple of days ago. We attended the opening ceremonies for the Naadam Festival. Early this morning we flew from Ulaan Bataar to the far west of Mongolia to the town of Olgii. We are arrived around 8:30 am in this time zone, on the western side of Mongolia. We got in jeeps after a wonderful breakfast in a ger with a local family and made the eight to nine hour jeep ride here to our starting point. I am looking out over a beautiful sunset. The sun is just beginning to go down behind the hills and we have glorious red, brown and green all around us. We are camped out here in a grassy field next to a couple of Mongolian gers and we have our Kazak staff with us who are going to come up to base camp with us tomorrow. Everyone is doing well. Everyone made it here on time, with all our baggage so we have a very happy crew here. Tomorrow morning we will be heading out after a quick breakfast and making the twenty kilometer trek to base camp where we will set up for the next couple of days and hope to get as good a weather as we had today. So I will be in touch tomorrow and we look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the climb. Talk to you soon.