Mongolian Extremes: Living as a nomad with Kazakhs and Eagle Hunters

Description

Chris Schrader is one of just four people who have trekked the entire distance of the Gobi Desert on foot, and at 17 became the youngest person in history to complete the feat. During that time, he was tasked with looking after the support camels and developed a close friendship with a local Kazakh nomad, Alibek, who invited Schrader to live with his family for 3 months as a nomad through the harsh winter of the Altai Mountains. They also embarked on six another expeditions in the western region of Mongolia, hunting with eagles, riding horses across the icy tundra and living as the Kazakh nomads have for hundreds of years.

In this talk, Schrader will tell us what it was like to walk across the Gobi and live with nomads through the Spring Migration, an annual event that sees nomadic families move their home and animals hundreds of kilometres through biting temperatures across the Altai Mountains in extreme winter. He will give us an insight into the harsh nomadic life of the reclusive Kazakh nomads and the eagle hunters of the Altai Mountains, who reside in temperatures as cold as 60 degrees Celsius.