Mongolia: nomads of the frozen lake | France 5 | Les Routes de l'Impossible

Every spring, in the region of Lake Khovsgol in the north of Mongolia, Minjbayar and his family, the last of the Darkhad nomads, undertake a perilous transhumance on a frozen river. On horseback, at 2000 meters altitude in freezing mountains, they defy the cold and the blizzards to reach the more fertile pastures that are indispensable to the survival of their herds of yaks and goats with coats of cashmere. Assisted by Lakhva and his ancient Russian van they try to avoid the pitfalls of the ice that can engulf both them and their animals. 1000 kilometers away, in the capital Ulan Bator, a city they have never seen, a new elite enjoys an opulent life exporting all over the world the precious cashmere wool that they produce. Behind this luxurious façade, 350,000 nomads are stranded in unfit suburbs struggling to survive after the periods of intense cold of these last twenty years.