Trans-Mongolia Kite Buggy Traverse

I set out from Ulaangom on 4 May 2026 to cross Mongolia west to east by kite buggy, alone, with no engine and no support vehicle. The route I had drawn ran roughly 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to the eastern side of the country.

I covered 1,038 miles (1,670 km) of it. 960 miles (1,545 km) came from the kites. The other 78 miles (126 km) I walked, hauling the buggy behind me when there was nothing to fly.

A rear axle bolt sheared on 31 May and cost a week, most of it spent getting to Ulaanbaatar and back for replacements that would hold. The final third of the route had about ten days of almost no wind. I relocated by vehicle to look for some. It did not come back.

I stopped at Gurvansaikhan on 2 July, short of the east coast. Sixty days on the traverse, seventy-one in the country.

It is not the crossing I went for. One team has ridden the full width of Mongolia by kite buggy, Gavin Mulvay and Joe Steffert in 2016, and I am not on that list. What I have instead is 1,038 miles of the hardest riding I have done and a fairly clear idea of what I would do differently.

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  The rig as it left, 4 May 2026

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  A dust front crossing the plain

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  Dune field

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  Low sun over the dunes

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  Camp in the dunes

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  Camp on the gravel

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