A group of 29 students and faculty from Laurentian University’s Outdoor Adventure Leadership Program are about to take their knowledge and skills to new extremes as they embark on a month-long trip to Western Mongolia.
Program co-ordinator Jim Little said the trip has been in the making for about two years. The group leaves May 21 and returns to Canada June 20. During their trip, students will be utilizing the skills and knowledge they've gained through the program to participate in a range of outdoor activities including mountaineering on glaciers and the Altai mountain range.
“This group was highly motivated to do something larger than our traditional travels, which was typically going to some of the more northern and remote areas of Ontario and Quebec for a canoe trip,” Little said.
Students divided into different core groups, each of which was responsible for organizing and co-ordinating various aspect of the trip. For example, one group was responsible for planning for risk management, while another was responsible for co-ordinating meals.
“The students took hold of the reins of this idea, and they really started to get ingrained in the process of planning it,” he said.
Accessing remote Mongolia won't be much different from their past excursions in remote parts of Ontario and Quebec, Little said.
“Getting yourself into remote Canada isn't all that different from getting yourself into remote Mongolia. It's just a different landscape and different opportunities, and I think that's where we're flourishing. We're starting to spread our wings as a program, and to integrate ourselves into different cultures with international travel.”
It's a 13-hour flight to Mongolia's capital city of Ulaanbaatar, where the group will first arrive. They will spend a few days there taking care of some of the logistics before flying to Ulgii, in Western Mongolia. From there, they will make their way into the Altai mountains, where they start their 10-day trek before heading back home to Canada.
Mongolia's Altai mountain range is a relatively unknown place, with very little services, Little said.
“It will be challenging to project yourself into that landscape, because it's pretty much devoid of anything we have as creature comforts here, from access to water to roads and the power grid,” he said. “These are all things we take for granted, but many of the smaller, remote communities we will be visiting, while happy and subsistent, don't have the integral services we have here.”
This will be a hybrid humanitarian-practical learning expedition, said Little. During their travels, students will be stopping in communities to distribute humanitarian supplies aimed at improving water distribution and irrigation, agriculture and health care.
“We're also taking over, in our packs, items like T-shirts to distribute among the villages,” Little said. The humanitarian side of the trip is already underway, he said.
“Redpath Mining in North Bay purchased a shipping container and helped pack it for shipment to Mongolia,” Little said. “It is filled with high-tech medical equipment, examination tables, health and hygiene supplies, eyeglasses, irrigation pumps, and more, and it was expected to land in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar on May 18.”
And, while June 20 will mark the end of the expedition for most of the students, others will take advantage of it to travel on to other destinations like Thailand and Australia, Little said.
