Are you ready to take some EPIC images in one of the most remote locations we visit?

In a land where you feel time has forgotten, live the Kazakh people that embrace traditions as old as the nomadic Khitans from Manchuria. A people who conquered part of northern China around 940AD.

Today, approximately 250 Kazakh men live in the western Mongolia province of Bayan-Olgi and carry on a tradition first depicted by the Khitan archives. This tradition is “horse riding eagle falconry”. The skill of using a Golden Eagle to capture prey while riding through the mountains.

Now, every October, a festival to celebrate the traditions and the craft of eagle hunting on horseback occurs. During this festival, up to 70 eagle hunters gather for the annual Kazakh Golden Eagle Festival of Mongolia. And in 2014 participants as young as a 13yr old girl to an 85yr old man showed the intimate crowd the art of golden eagle hunting.

I had the pleasure of witnessing the synchronicity between man (and a girl) and eagle over the course of two entertaining days. Both hunter and eagle showing off the skills needed to once tip the scales between starvation and survival; now showing off the skills to still feed a family, but more to embrace the long-standing heritage and show off the prowess of the art of hunting fox.

As I sat there and watched the two work in tandem, I couldn’t help but wonder how close the bond had to be between a wild golden eagle that was taken after birth from a nest and a hunter. Was it a skill that the two mastered together, or was it some pavlovian instinct of the eagle to hunt, combined with man’s superior mind. Was the hunter using training methods of reward so the eagle would hunt?

My answer came to me after closely watching both men and bird during my time living with a Kazakh family in Western Mongolia. There, immersed in the ways of the past, watching the eagle live with the family, I spotted the first of many first tender moments of man and bird.

The bond did not spawn from the birds need to hunt, nor did it come from training, it came from creating a special, and unfathomable respect between a wild bird and a simple man. The man would command, the eagle would listen, instinctively hunt as it has done for centuries, then wait for the hunter to arrive with prey in its talons.

Since that trip over six (6) years ago, I have gotten to know more and more of the eagle hunters in Mongolia. I’ve met their families, watched the children grow, and now, many have become friends that I look forward to seeing every year I return.

It’s been 6 years, 14 workshops and 1 scouting trip since I first stepped foot in Mongolia. It’s become like a second home. I’ve Explored more of the country, met more people from all corners of the country, and the entire experience has become a passion for me.  

In 2018 the Federal Government of Mongolia actually awarded me with a citation for my commitment to embracing the cultures, writing articles on the country and sharing my Mongolian photos with the world to increase awareness and tourism in Mongolia. 

In 2019, after everything I have learned, we have made some changes to our workshops. We are taking our experience that we have in Mongolia, using our knowledge of the people, and the understanding of a culture, and taking our Mongolian workshops to the next level…

GET READY!!! We are going higher, we are going more remote, and we are exploring the country in every season. The cultural experience is becoming a larger part of our offerings, the action photography will be unparalleled, and the night skies will be explored in some of the most remote locations in the world.

All the active Mongolia Workshops are listed on our workshop page. New ones listed as they become available. Most sell out soon after we announce. So, below, I am listing the trips that are going to be announced soon. If you have questions, please contact me and I will make sure your name goes on a waiting list. You will be contacted before we sell out our Mongolia trips