Until about ten years ago, the remote Altai Mountains of Mongolia were hardly known by the outside world. The region is still rarely visited, and for this reason it is ideal for our unique workshop focused on photography and ancient monuments in a spectacular landscape. This is the first time such a workshop has been run in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia.

The main focus of this trip is the Ancient Culture, Archaeology and the Landscape of the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia. Using four different base camps we explore these areas with enough time in each camp to become well acquainted with the surroundings. The 3 best ways to get to know the place is with on-site lectures, photography and exploration, and we have plenty of all of it on this exciting trip.

Eddie & Amy Frank, Tusker Trail’s owners, first visited the area in 2006 while scouting a Solar Eclipse expedition. In this magical land, still inhabited by nomads, Eddie and Amy discovered an extraordinary world of breathtaking beauty; of towering peaks and stone altars; of huge standing stones and thousands of ancient petroglyphs scattered across the landscape.

They also encountered Gary Tepfer, a photographer of extensive international experience, and Esther Jacobson-Tepfer, one of the foremost experts on the cultural ecology and ancient monuments of the Altai region. The four have been friends ever since.

The trip’s focus on photography and on the roots of ancient cultures offers you a magnificent opportunity to explore the foundation of nomadic traditions stretching back thousands of years and persisting to this day.

Trip participants should come with a working knowledge of their cameras and, as we’ll be doing some hiking, make sure that they and their cameras are in good condition.

Gary Tepfer has been a professional photographer since 1976. His work has been focused on Mongolia, Russia, and the American West. Gary’s primary interests are landscape, portraiture, architecture, and archaeology. For more than 15 years he has been the photographer for Esther’s project in the Altai Mountains. Gary’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including in New York, Paris, and Ulaanbaatar. Gary works in Small Format for his documentation work and in Medium Format (Hasselblad) for his art photos; he processes and prints all his own work.

www.gtepfer.com

Our cultural guide is Dr. Esther Jacobson-Tepfer, professor emeritus at the University of Oregon. Since 1989, she has been researching rock art and surface monuments in the Altai Mountains of North Asia. Between 1994 and 2004, she collaborated with Mongolian and Russian colleagues, documenting the three most important rock art sites yet identified in the Mongolian Altai. From 2004 through 2009, working closely with Gary and a geography colleague, she expanded that focus to document and map the surface monuments within the region where we will be traveling. She is especially interested in the relationship of ancient monuments to the landscape. Esther has published widely; she is a leading scholar of surface archaeology in the Mongolian Altai and the foremost authority of its petroglyphic traditions.

Eddie is a veteran guide who has been exploring the planet and leading expeditions for 37 years. Born and raised in Africa, Eddie spent nine years making a living as a professional photographer. After a wild bet with some friends, he made his first Africa crossing when he was 24. Eddie then founded Tusker Trail.

Since then Eddie has crossed the Sahara Desert 34 times, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro 46 times. He & his wife Amy have been leading treks in Mongolia since 2006.

Amy brings over 25 years of outdoor leadership experience to Tusker Trail. Having grown up in Canada, Amy’s passions include all and everything “outdoor.” Amy’s formal education includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in Kinesiology and Human Geography, as well as a Bachelor of Education degree. She holds a Wilderness EMT (medical certification). Prior to joining Tusker, Amy’s career focused on facilitating learning opportunities for children and adults in the natural sciences and outdoor adventure field, as well as in formal classroom settings.