Frozen Lake Khovsghol in Mongolia - RatRace Bucket List Mongol 100 Race

Frozen Lake Khovsgol crossed on foot by Lee-Stuart Evans as part of the Rat Race Mongol 100

In my latest trip abroad I cross the 85 mile long Frozen Lake Khovsgol in Mongolia on foot, Meet a Shaman, freeze my eyelashes together, ride a bike on ice at -47C, accidentally come top 10 in a marathon and go ‘full ferrero rocher’ as a guest of the British Ambassador to Mongolia at her reception in the capital for Burns Night………

…….all as part of a recce for an INCREDIBLE race starting next year organised by RatRace called the Mongol 100.

Frozen Lake Khovsgol in Mongolia pic by Lee-Stuart Evans – rat race mongol 100

Lee-Stuart Evans and fellow Rat Racers and crew on the frozen Lake Khovsol in Mongolia

Lake Khovsgol is in the northern part of Mongolia near the Russian border. Known as the Blue Pearl of Mongolia this National Park represents 0.5% of all of the planets fresh water, being up to 250m deep in places. In the winter as temperatures drop to nearly minus 50 C the lake freezes over and is able to easily support the weight of vehicles and people.

For many runners the Adventure Racing company RatRace need no introduction, famous for their Dirty Weekend OCR event, The Wall and many others the co founder Jim Mee now wants to maintain his lead as a company at the forefront of quality adventure racing by taking it up a very huge notch with his ‘Bucket List’ concept.

One of the first three ‘Bucket List’ Races coming in 2019 is the Mongol 100 Ultra and I was lucky enough to be part of the recce crew going out there for the first time to figure out the logistics of a race, travel the intended route and get some epic footage and pictures to help promote the race.

view of the Mongolian tundra flying towards Lake Khovsgol for the Rat Race Mongol 100 – pic by Lee-Stuart Evans

The journey to Mongolia was via Aeroflot via Moscow. We then took a private chartered plane from Ulan Bator the capital of Mongolia for a 2 hour scenic flight over the tundra followed by a 2 hour drive to get to the southern shoreline of the lake.

Cessna Grand Caravan flight to Lake Khovsgol in Mongolia for the Rat Race Mongol 100 – pic by Lee-Stuart Evans

Traditional Mongolian Ger on the shore of Frozen Lake Khovsgol – pic by Lee-Stuart Evans

Arriving at camp near the South of the Lake is spectacular. Here we got the chance to understand just how tough it is to live at minus 40C. It was so cold that a hot cup of tea thrown into the air simply became a snowy cloud that gently blew away and never came back down.

We were welcomed by the village and locals and greeted with traditional blessings and smiles. It was wonderful to relax in the communal cabin with a wood burning stove and be well fed.

In the mornings when the Mongolians wanted to get the engines started on the vehicles they would have to light a fire under the engine for an hour to thaw it out enough to start it.

Lake Khovsgol Mongolia – so cold vehicles need a fire under them to start their engines . – pic by Darren Grigas

On the journey up to the North of the lake by vans the next day we got to experience standing on the lake for the first time. Its actually quite unnerving stepping out of a vehicle onto the ice, the clear sections are super dark black and your instincts fight your common sense.

Lee-Stuart Evans standing on the ice on Frozen Lake Khovsol for the Rat Race Mongol 100

The lake is covered in faults that form and refreeze as the lake heats up and cools during the day . This can make driving treacherous, in some sections you can fly along in a car at normal road speeds but in other areas , especially nearer the shoreline, you have to be more careful crossing some of these fractures or faults.

A frozen Lake Khovsgol fracture in the ice – pic by Lee-Stuart Evans

The Mongolian locals are skilled in traversing the lake safely and sometimes would ask us to get out of the van while the carefully crossed some faults. I suspect this was more overcautious than necessary.

Vehicles crossing a fault on frozen Lake Khovsgol in Mongolia – pic by Lee-Stuart Evans

Halfway through the day we even stopped for a picnic on the ice. We had a hot lunch and all got bundled into traditional clothing made from Yak fur called Deels for some photos on the ice.

Lee-Stuart Evans wearing traditional Mongolian Deel clothing on frozen Lake Khovsgol

Eventually we got to our northern camp late in the day and after a nice warm meal and some beers and WiFi settled in for an early nights sleep.

Standing on the ice of frozen Lake Khovsgol with the sunken lake bed visible beneath the ice – pic by Lee-Stuart Evans

After another warm sleep in a Ger we assembled on the Icy Northern Shoreline at sunrise and set off!

What followed was the steepest running learning curve since I ran across the Sahara in the Marathon des Sables.

3 miles in and my running spikes had shattered from being brittle due to the extreme cold , worst still by bum got so cold it hurt. I’d been told to run with a waterproof breathable layer on the outside and this was a HUGE mistake.At these extreme temperatures I was horrified to find that the sweat wouldn’t evaporate and instead collect inside my clothing. As a result when I took my ‘breathable waterproof’ trousers off I found my lower body covered in a dense layer of snow made from my own sweat. …hence my freezing cold bum. I discarded the waterproof outer trousers and opted for my Weezle Extreme Diving Undersuit which is like onsie made of sleeping bag material. I was instantly warmer and more importantly in a more breathable material wicking the moisture away. I scrounged replacement spikes that attach to your shoes from fellow runner Allie Bailey ( who traded for the straps off my broken spikes to turn into a well needed belt) and settled into some less chaotic progress across the ice.

Lee-Stuart Evans Running across frozen Lake Khovsgol in Mongolia

The types of ice to run along are very varied, you get smooth glass like black ice with cracks in like a mobile phone screen , rippled ice and what we called ‘ jellyfish’ ice which had huge refrozen circular disks in it. The scenery was mesmerising, mountains in the distance , beautiful ice underfoot. I had to run with a 1 inch ‘slit’ to look through with 3 layers of hood , fleece hood and jacket hood on with a buff over my nose and face to protect my face from the cold. Every hour or 2 everything round your face froze solid and needed to be changed. We carried packs on our backs so we had spare clothes to change as they got frosty and iced up.

rat race mongol 100 frozen lake khovsghol lee-stuart evans

Sleeping Mongolian on horse drawn sled on frozen Lake Khovsgol in Mongolia – pic by Lee-Stuart Evans

We found there is a sweet spot on the lake between 1 and 2pm . Its a very special time. The temperature rises to a ‘bearable’ -25c and as a result you can get away with just one hat , as the day gets to its warmest the lake erupts in huge explosions. It sounds like distant constant artillery fire as the heat from the sun warms the lake ice and it violently cracks making a whump/ crack / Shuff noise Its very disconcerting but after a few days on the ice you get very blase about it.

The support crew set up regular points with hot food and drinks to keep us going and I the day passed quickly. I loved every minute of it.

Burns night Highland Piper on the shoreline of frozen Lake Khovsgol at sunset – pic by Lee-Stuart Evans

By evening we had traveled marathon distance on the ice and reached camp for the night.

The support crew had set up Gers and a massive fire by the shoreline in a beautiful location in full view of the Island in the middle of the lake that was our destination for the end of the second day.

It was also Burns night and I’d managed to come joint 6th with Jim Mee in the Ghenghis Khan marathon …my highest ever placing in a marathon with a sub 8 hour time.

After the traditional Burns night events and some amazing roast Wild Boar we settled off to sleep in the Gers set up for us as the wolves howled in the distance. Sleeping out in the Gers on the lake was far tougher than the more permanent tourist ones on the shoreline and the wood burning heater struggled to get the interior temp higher than the temp of a Freezer at home. Many had a very rough night and got very cold but I went to bed wearing my north face jacket inside my army sleeping bag and managed to stay ‘ nearly warm enough’ all night. There was a Mongolian sleeping with us in the Ger whos sole job was to feed the fire.

The wood burning stove wasn’t about comfort that night, it was essential to us staying alive.

Camping on the lake shoreline on Frozen Lake Khovsgol with RatRace and Sandbaggers for the Mongol 100

Day two was more of the beautiful same . It was a day where many of us struggled with electronics , my mobile phone I was using for photos turned off and wouldn’t turn back on, and Pete Rees struggled with a disobedient camera drone. I switched to a back up Ixus compact camera for photos and worked hard to keep essential gear in pockets close to my body to keep things like contact lenses, batteries and even wet wipes from freezing solid. We just kept pushing forward with the island in view that we would be camping on that night. On landscapes of such vast scale it felt like you were often hardly moving for hours on end .

We all got a much better handle on what clothing worked and what didnt , and in fact I spent much of the day running in only a Vollebak Baselayer and Alpkit Jacket. The low humidity of the cold actually makes the cold far more bearable than you think.

Crossing the Ice of Lake Khovsgol in Mongolia near the Island

Eventually we got to the island in the center of Lake Khovsgol for our second and last ‘temporary’ camp. Another cold nights sleep awaited us but not before an amazing visit from a Shaman to bless our journey. Her ritual dance and singing added to the weeks experience and left us all mesmerised by her chanting and dancing .

A Shaman performing on Lake Khovsgol

Our final day was for me by far the most fun . We had a big ask distance wise , definitely over 35 miles to get to the finish so we started as early as possible. despite the distance I was determined to enjoy the whole day and took advantage of the special bike RatRace had brought with them to ride a bike on the ice. The special wide tyres had loads of metal studs to grip and although the drag was horrendous the grip was good. After 45 mins on the bike the added windchill and lack of proper movement of my feet took its toll and my toes hurt with the cold. I was forced to run alongside the bike to warm my feet up.

Lee-Stuart Evans riding a bike across frozen Lake Khovsgol in Mongolia

Our guide David from Sandbaggers had everything covered from the moment we arrived at the Lake. His experience in Mongolia is extensive and we had a huge amount of support on the Lake. We had various vans providing support and food and water and acting as distance markers for each leg of the journey and also a team of pony drawn sleighs who kept as close as we needed them . Somehow the support team managed the difficult task of balancing being reassuringly close should we have a problem, but far enough away at times that I could enjoy the sheer thrill of being alone on a huge lake with mountains in the distance.

As the day came to the end I took opportunities to ‘piggy back’ with the sleighs to keep up with the guys in my team still running . My progress was slower , but I didn’t want the final day to be a slog fest and instead enjoyed the scenery and soaked up my last day on the ice. I looked at the mountains , looked down at all the ice patterns and looked back to the distant horizon where the island we left that morning was and watched the sun setting behind the mountains. I jumped of the sleigh for the last mile or two to finish the course with Sally Orange rather than see her slog out the last bits on her own.

We finished by some huge ships frozen into the shoreline at a frozen dock . We waited around to wait for Graham Law and Allie Bailey to finish . Allie completed the entire route on foot and can lay claim perhaps to the first female to cross the lake entirely on foot.

Her Excellency Catherine Arnold and Lee-Stuart Evans at the Mongolian Burns Night Supper in Ulan Bator 2018

David from Sandbaggers is also an honorary consul for Scotland to the Mongolian embassy. After a night at camp we returned to the capital the next day as guest at the UK ambassadors reception for Burns Night, hosted by The Ambassador Catherine Arnold and David . We had an absolute blast , so much so in fact that some of us didn’t sleep that night and went straight to the airport the next day .

The realisation came to me sat on a sleigh for the last few miles of the lake, wearing a wolfskin jacket and with a Mongolian next to me happily singing folk songs as we blasted along. ….. My experience on the Lake wasn’t a race and it wasn’t about ‘ a distance’.

As a runner if you want to ‘ do 100 miles ‘ you can go do a distance race on the Thames path or something equally soul destroying.

My week here was different ….authentic. ……a true adventure.

Anyone looking to do 100 miles here is missing the point. The opportunity to live and eat with the locals , take in the scenery , try out riding a bike or ice skates at minus 47 c…. the sound of wolves howling on the island I camped on and the locals blessing our journey and sending a Shaman to keep us safe…. These were the the real goals of this week. The best thing you can do is leave your garmin watch behind , they don’t work well in the extreme cold anyway , and time spent checking your distance or progress is time you could spend looking at the mountains or simply staring at the mesmerising black ice with cracks in like white marble.

I also now had the bragging rights to be able to claim Ive run from minus 50 to plus 50 between Mongolia and The Sahara . A 100 Celcius range.

My precision hydration buff and me have now run at the two extremes of a 100 Ceclius range – Lee-Stuart Evans

Jim Mees vision of a bucket list is to bring an unusual adventure that is accessible to most people and I’ve now seen first hand what a legacy these Bucket List adventures will be.

Forget medals ….forget personal best times …forget UTDB points …. say yes NOW

http://ratrace.com/bucketlist/