“Can you see the bridge?” Brian shouts down to me. A moment of confusion and elation pass between us. I am on the cobble marge of the Kara Koba, washing dishes from dinner with water from the stream. It is achingly cold, running fast over… Read More
We make certain assumptions when looking at a map. It is a designed object, the recipient of refinement, and bears a certain authority in its geometry. But despite the weight of accumulated knowledge they exhibit, maps are not infallible. The person who designed our map… Read More
“Da, yes. Kurgan.” The shepherd pointed behind him without looking. He hunched low over his horse, hands pressed between stomach and saddle horn. He wore a knit ski mask, black leather overcoat, and dark corduroys with patches of thick quilting showing at the knees. He… Read More
To reach the valley of the Tsagaan Gol takes six hours on rough dirt tracks. From where the road ends, it is another twenty kilometers by foot, or, in this season, by ski. Where the jeep stops, a Tuvan family takes us in and fills… Read More
Circling the Golden Mountains 