Mongolia Mountain

We climbed some really big hills the day before yesterday. Like, really big.

So let’s make that a mountain. I climb it, it qualifies!

The Story:

It was Friday. Friday is team-time day. This time it was team-time-adventure-day.

After school in the morning, we dropped by our place for lunch of PB&J or Sausage Sandwiches before taking a taxi south of the city . (Translation: sticking our hand out along the road and getting in the first car that pulls over. Don’t tell my mother.) 

Then, with the general idea that “we just need to go up, right?” we started off for  our vague destintation (see: pointy thing below, to the right).

A hill and Steve’s head

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But first, we circumnavigated a mini-ger neighbourhood.

I like the Hashas (fences, or any fenced enclosure) in the ger districts; every one is different.
Some are pretty; most are rough and dirty-like.

Then we picked a part of the hill, and we climbed.

Sometimes I got distracted :

Don’t shake my hand when I’m wearing these mittens. They give me confidence to touch anything, ’cause the germs stay on the outside.

But I’ll stay focused now! Where were we?

Right. Hiking.

So we hiked.

Meaning, dug our toes into a hill so steep it should have had stairs, it was so steep. (But if we wanted stairs, that’s what Zaison is for, right?)

Oh, and if you just clicked on that link for Zaison, wondering what the heck that was, now is a good time to take a look at ovoos, too. They are much more important to this post. Ignore the Zaison comment. Read about ovoos. You’ll actually learn something.

After the initial steep part, we came to our first ovoo and climbed up to it, curious. We stopped for an adventure-like pose and then followed the ridge towards the tree line and to our ultimate goal: The really big pointy thing in the distance (much larger ovoo situated on an attainable peak)

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And then we kept walking. (Do you sense a theme?)

Poop.ed.

And taking water breaks. Unlike the boys, who climb 5 steps of stairs every day, our apartment is only on the second floor so our poor legs are not used to walking on an incline.

Er, I mean, we stopped frequently to enjoy the view….

And also to snap a few team shots, because that’s too rare an occasion.

Thanks to my buddies for both the camera AND the tripod! You know who you are, and I can’t express your awesomeness in words : )

Then we climbed.

And breaked.

And climbed.

And sat on logs and climbed and climbed and climbed.

It’s what you do when you hike mountains, apparently.

Anyhow, we finally made it, and it really wasn’t a bad hike at all.

It was an overcast day which is rare here, but coming up from the North side made everything backlit and a bit moody-looking in the photos. It didn’t look that weird in real life, but it was eerily silent compared to the city life that we’re used to, with only the occasional screech of trains or busses heard from below.

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We wandered a while in the woods and snow. We went higher, found new views, ate crackers, sausage and chocolate and then descended for home. It began to snow as we came out of the trees; a wet, cold, spring snow.

So then we went home, with tired legs and food for thought.