Trailsmith

Trailsmith LLC. We are adventure travel consultants, wilderness guides, expedition organizers, and Mongolia travel experts.

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Nokhoi Zeekh: in search of wolverine.

Five Americans set off on a month-long ski expedition through northern Mongolia in search of one of the world's least-known carnivores, the wolverine. The journey takes them into a remote mountain ecosystem, where they encounter Mongolian herders and Tuvan reindeer people, gather DNA samples for research, and attempt to bridge the worlds of science, conservation, and outdoor adventure.

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National Geographic Best Trips 2012: Untamed Hovsgol

Untamed Hovsgol

If you yearn for a connection to the wild, you will find it here. Hovsgol is the northernmost of Mongolia’s 21 provinces, shadowing Russia’s border and sharing the great Siberian taiga (subarctic coniferous forest). Lichens in bright greens and oranges color 10,000-foot passes, while sacred rivers, rumored to never freeze, feed lakes framed by snow-tipped mountains.

Photo: Hamid Sardar

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A Cashmere Story by Pearly Jacob

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Why Mongolia's Gobi Desert should be on your bucket list

#1 You get to travel around in a really cool looking Russian van

#3 You get to trek through the most gorgeous sand dunes 

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Darhad Ski Traverse, Mongolia

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Birding in Mongolia.

Gary Howard's amazing blog posts and photos of a birding trip in Mongolia

Rock Thrush

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Oyu Nuur.

Oyu Nuur, Turquoise Lake, was formed by a massive landslide resulting from an earthquake in 1957. Accessible only on foot (horse or camel), it lies in the heart of the Ikh Bogd Mountain range in the Gobi Desert, Bayankhongor Aimag.

Photo: Orso Bayarsaihan

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Khermen Tsav.

Khermen Tsav lies deep in the Gobi, well off the beaten tourism track, spectacular desert scenery and dinosaur fossil deposits.

Photo: Bayar

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Mongolia's Nomads: Life on the Steppe.

Mongolian pastoral herders make up one of the world's last remaining nomadic cultures. For millennia they have lived on the steppes, grazing their livestock on the lush grasslands.

More photo's and link to book Mongolia's Nomads

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Photos from the Gobi Desert (Andy Parkinson).  A late season family trip (October 2010) to Three Camel Lodge, where we were lucky enough to spend some time with Jalsa and Badral of Nomadic Expeditions. Despite the chilly nights it was a wonderful time to be in the Gobi: clear blue skies and absolutely no other tourists.

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isaluciole:

Hamid Sardar-Afkhami is a professional photographer as well as a scholar of Tibetan and Mongol languages who received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. After moving to Nepal in the late 1980’s and exploring Tibet and the Himalayas for more than a decade, he went to live in Outer Mongolia in 2000 to make a record of people’s customs and manners of life before they became divorced from their natural and spiritual environment.

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Only 45 Gobi Bears remain in the wild.

Mongolia Strives to Save Gobi Bear by Michael Hanan

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Ski Mountaineering in Mongolia

Ski Mountaineering Report from the Eagle Ski Club who made several ski ascents and descents in the Altai Tavan Bogd range in Western Mongolia in 2011.

The group found this glaciated mountainous area to be fine and remote, eminently suitable for ski-mountaineering, and with some challenging descents. And the Mongolians met proved to be both friendly and helpful.

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World's Toughest Horse Race Retraces Genghis Khan's Postal Route

The goal—beyond not getting seriously injured—is to ride a 621-mile circuit (1,000 kilometers) of Mongolian Steppe in less than ten days.

Fewer than half of the riders are expected to make it across the finish line. The rest will either quit or be carried off the course by the medical team. Broken bones and torn ligaments are common, frustration and bruised egos the norm. Every rider will fall off multiple times during the course of the race, says Katy Willings, the race chief and a former Mongol Derby competitor.

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Mongolia Exploration Photography | Hamid Sardar.

Hamid Sardar Photography

Hamid has filmed and photographed extensively in the Mongolian Taiga, in all seasons. A talented linguist he speaks both Mongolian and Tuvan (the language of the Tsaatan reindeer herders) fluently, allowing him unprecedented access and deep insights into Tsaatan culture and the taiga landscape.

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Traditional Skiing in Mongolia.

Excerpt from Hamid Sardar's film on the ski tradition among Mongolia's Tsaatan Reindeer Herders.