How to get there:
The best trailhead for this peak is on the east side. One may drive a "track" route south
from Chandmani or one can access a pretty nice and often used track that heads east, then north
starting from the paved road that runs north-south on the western side of this mountain.
In both cases, the "track" driving will exceed 30 kilometer. The best place to park and
camp is located near N47.28618, E093.08429, elevation 2630 m.
Route description:
Ascend the small valley just above camp, then climb the ridge on your left or right
side, both these alternatives will work nicely. After cresting the first "hump", the route
will continue along the high ridge somewhat more (climbers) right and you have a small
descent, then connecting nicely to the ridge that continues higher, culminating in a
flat summit plateau.
Comments:
Here is a quick summary of peaks climbed in Mongolia August 2024.
After climbing Jargalant, we had lunch, then broke camp
just before it started to rain. The drive to our new BC involved going back to the main (paved)
road from Khovd to Ulaan Baatar, then about 100 km south, before a 40 km road into a pretty remote
area on the east side of our peak. Steven had traced out an excellent driving route from satellite
data. When 3 km from camp Ganga came across to our car quite excited claiming that we had tricked
the expedition into driving many extra hours. It is still unclear for us how she would drive to
this location, however her written plan involved a 15 km hike to a camp, then a summit climb the
following day.
It became clear after arriving at this BC, that indeed a driving track connects us to the town
Chandmani that served as our starting point to get to Jargalant. Thus driving directly here would
have been much faster. I fully understand the frustration. What is needed is a better combination
of our driver's excellent local knowledge and our (satellite based) detailed understanding
of the best local driving tracks. With language and cultural differences this is not entirely
easy, but I am certain that we will be able to improve.
We are now camped
(with the landcruisers) only 4 km from the peak with a vertical
of about 840 meter. Thus, we expected the climb the next day to be a rather short and easy one.
We decided to do this peak before breakfast. Starting at 0500
(first daylight), we had a pretty
fast ascent, arriving at the summit at 0630. There where several flat sections, so a rate
of ascent of 580 m / hour was not bad.
Beautiful morning weather. The summit plateau
is pretty large and quite flat. Two cairns of
essential the same elevation. Very good views all around to both previous and future summits.
We next descended back to camp in one hour after a 30 minute break on the summit.
Gangaa served a tasteful breakfast, we next cleared camp and prepared departure. This time, we
would drive the dirt track connecting north, that we should have taken yesterday. Today, the
possible gain is minimal since we need to connect back to the paved highway. However, we got to
see the route, very scenic cross country driving.
