It was mid-May 2013 and halfway through our expedition to the Tavan Bogd massif in Mongolia. It was storming and snowing, and we felt we had lost all contact with the outside world. It was colder, windier and icier than we had feared, but on a clear day the area was more impressive and expansive than expected, mostly under an endlessly bright blue sky.
We had come to this remote corner of the Altai Mountains to ski exciting lines and take in a few of the 4,000-metre peaks along the way. Melissa Presslaber, one of Austria's best big mountain freeriders, had the idea for this trip to Mongolia and put together a team of similarly ambitious ski mountaineers. Liz Kristoferitsch is Austria's most successful freeride snowboarder, Michi Mayrhofer is a busy contest rider, photographer Zlu Haller is a bouldering legend from Innsbruck, Tom Andrillon is an experienced filmmaker from France and I, Stephan Skrobar, run a Freeride Center in Austria.
The preparation took time, money and nerves; and yet it was part of the whole experience. We had to organize visas and border permits, brush up on vaccinations, beg sponsors, repeat rescue methods and ultimately put our equipment in bags that wouldn't drive airlines and their staff into a rage. Unfortunately, we failed miserably at the latter.
The final logistical steps were taken in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. Mongolia Expeditions was our partner for transportation and catering on the one hand, and for the all-important contact with the local culture and philosophy of life on the other.