How to get there:
This mountain may be climbed directly from the city of Ulaan Baatar, however the
shortest access is from the south. To drive there from the center of Ulaan Bataar
takes about one hour if you avoid heavy traffic.
Take the road to the new airport, just after the airport turn left (north) and
drive to the small town of Zuunmod. From there, take the road that goes north (slightly east)
serving a valley, there is a large parking area at the end of this road, location
N47.75886, E106.99470, elevation near 1700 meter.
Route description:
A trail, initially made of concrete, runs uphill on the grassy slope above the parking.
Higher up, keep left and follow a pretty big trail marked with yellow paint that runs fairly
straight north.
Unfortunately, hundreds of trees have fallen down all across this forest and many are
directly across the trail making progress difficult. Add to this that this area is
also quite wet with mud and soaked vegetation. This makes the hike somewhat more
complex, following bypass trails almost constantly.
The route/trail generally climbs uphill while traversing a little right (as seen when
going uphill). Near the top, the trail crests and continues pretty level, even slightly
downhill. It then crosses a final, flat section that may be wet, you will now see the
summit cliffs straight ahead.
There are several rock towers, two of them, both marked with a summit pole, are almost
equally high. My friends previously measured the southernmost
of the two towers, to
be about 0.3 meter higher than the one a short distance more north.
One should consider
visiting both of them. The (south) higher one may be easiest climbed from the "inside" of the area.
You can scramble up there, (YDS) class 3.
The north cliff is most easily climbed more or less
along the ridge that points toward the south. There is a single friction based move that may
be considered (YDS) class 4.
Comments:
Here is a quick summary of other peaks climbed in Mongolia, August 2024.
Steven and I had arrived back in Ulaan Baatar one day ahead of scedule. The only reasonable option
was to climb the highest point on the close mountain overlooking the city. At least, this peak had
more than 600 m of prominence. Gangaa picked us up at the hotel at 0600, then kindly drove us to
the trailhead. We started hiking at 0710 and arrived at the summit about 2 hours later.
We spent about 30 minutes there, including a bit of scrambling on the two highest rock towers.
Our retun hike took 1:40, for a total trip time of 4:10.
Gangaa was waiting and then drove us back to the hotel.
Many thanks to Gangaa for her help. She and Steven would fly to west Mongolia the
next day for an attempt on the country Highpoint, while I would fly to Beijing and
see if I could ascend a few more ultra prominent mountains in the vicinity of Beijing.
