17/10/2026
On day eight of our walk through the Tavan Bogd National Park in Northwest Mongolia, some of us attempt to climb to the summit of Malchin Peak.
The walk to the start from our camp is about 5 km.
Malchin Peak is 4045 m high and we start at about 3100 meters, so the total is about a 900 m ascent.
Oh, if it were just the height!
Malchin Peak is a really tough challenge because it is all scree.
Every time you take a step there is some movement backwards. There is some unevenness. There is some rocking of your foot. You never quite get a good grip on your feet when you’re walking up.
It is also at altitude so if your sea level dweller like most Australians when you get over to Mongolia, despite acclimatising for several days and taking quite a lot of time before we attempt 4000 m, any kind of exercise above 3000 - 3500 m already involves laboured breathing.
So when you climb up this mountain it’s really tough.
Then comes getting down.
Coming down Malchin Peak can be even more difficult than climbing up - there’s less heavy breathing, but there are a lot of tumbles and lot of land/rock slides.
It can be lots of fun too.
And then when we get to the bottom there is a lovely stream - icy icy icy cold stream - where you can take off your shoes and let you feel cool down before walking the 5 km back to camp.
Congratulations to everyone who made it! And also to everyone who did not!
The goal of our walk is to traverse the national park from the start at Khoton Lake to the north east exit of the park in Oygor Valley, after reaching the Tavan Bogd Basecamp.
Malchin Peak is an added challenge some choose to do. It is not compulsory at all!
Most people try to walk some of the way to get the views!
