Mongolia Snow Leopard tracking vacation

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION
This trip has no domestic flights. We travel overland from Ulaanbaatar to the South Gobi and back, which also lets travelers see how the steppe slowly turns into desert.
The whole group travels in one shared vehicle, with a maximum of six travelers.
We stay four nights in the same camp in Tost instead of moving every day. The three field days are spent mostly on foot, walking the valley floors and watching from the ridges, rather than driving.
We buy food and supplies locally in Dalanzadgad whenever possible, and ask travelers to bring a refillable bottle instead of buying bottled water.
We are a young company and do not yet formally measure the emissions of our trips. As we grow, we intend to measure and reduce them.

ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE
The animal comes before the photograph. We never bait, feed or call snow leopards or any other animal, and we never stage an encounter. Snow leopards and ibex are watched from a distance through spotting scopes and long lenses, and we tell travelers clearly before booking that a sighting can never be guaranteed.
Every field day is led by a local ranger who knows the reserve, and we follow the rules of Tost Nature Reserve and the guidance of its rangers.
We keep to existing tracks, carry out everything we carry in, and keep the group small so that our presence in the mountains stays light.
At Hermen Tsav and at the petroglyph sites, travelers look but never touch or take anything: fossils and rock carvings stay where they are.

People

LOCAL ECONOMY
Local rangers accompany the group on every field day in Tost. Their knowledge of the mountains, the tracks and the animals' habits is what makes the search possible, and paying them for this work gives the people who live alongside the snow leopard a direct reason to protect it.
We stay in local hotels in Dalanzadgad, in our camp in Tost and in a ger camp near Khongoryn Els, rather than in international hotel chains in the desert.
In Dalanzadgad, we visit the Gobi Museum of Nature and History and stop at a small local market, where travelers can buy products made in the area.
We buy food, fuel and supplies locally wherever possible, so that tourism spending reaches the communities of the South Gobi rather than staying in the capital.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY
Artus Expeditions is based in Ulaanbaatar. Our guides, drivers, trackers and cooks are Mongolian, and whenever possible we work with people who live in or near the regions we visit.
We keep groups to a maximum of six travelers, so that our camp and the people who host us are never overwhelmed.
This trip involves long drives, early starts, rocky and uneven ground, and temperatures that can fall to -30 °C in winter. Travelers with limited mobility or other needs are welcome to contact us before booking. We will tell them honestly whether the trip suits them and what we can adapt.