Flashes of the Altai: exploring Mongolia by bike and packraft

Mongolia’s Altai Mountains are one of the last great wildernesses left on the planet. What better place to test a new and untried bike and raft combination?!

Three childhood friends – Mason Lacy, Sam Seward, and Joey Schusler – set out for the far western corner of Mongolia to combine mountain biking and packrafting in a self-supported adventure into the unknown. Despite never having attempted a mountain bike to packraft link-up, they decided it was a great idea to travel to one of the most remote and sparsely populated places in the world to try it out.

Flashes of the Altai

Three childhood friends set out for the far western corner of Mongolia to combine mountain biking and packrafting in a self-supported adventure into the unknown. Never having attempted a mountain bike to packraft link-up, they decided it was a great idea to travel to one of the most remote and sparsely populated places in the world to try it out.

Nothing if not ambitious, their goal was to traverse the Mongolian Altai, a remote range of high glaciated peaks draining into roaring silt-laden torrents of water. The only inhabitants of the region are Kazakh nomads, the last people on earth who continue the tradition of hunting with golden eagles. Ancient standing stones carved over the millennia stand guard over the landscape. This is not a place where you want to get in trouble, yet the team managed to withstand punctures, hypothermia and sickness (and a severe lack of sleep after deciding to leave sleeping mats at home to save space) to complete their goal.

All in all they spent twelve days in the wilderness, riding over high passes loaded with gear, surviving raging whitewater in their cumbersome pack rafts, drinking fermented mare’s milk, and battling the elements. It’s safe to say the boys won’t forget this adventure in a hurry!