The snow leopard invites us into her lair!

Our snow leopard looking across the valley at us. We watched her for 8 hours. Photo Sibylle Noras

Our group of six landed in Leh, the capital of Ladakh and we spent a few days acclimatising to the Himalayan altitude (3600m) by visiting stunning Buddhist monasteries. Each day I was thinking, the snow leopard will teach me patience, sitting and watching on high ridges in snow and ice for hours. Although this is prime snow leopard habitat it’s likely I will see nothing. I would be happy with a sight of a whisker or a tail. No way could I know beforehand the amazing sighting our small group was to have.

Jigmet tracking snow leopard in Hemis National Park. He found pugmarks, scrapes, scat. Photo Sibylle Noras.

Our leader, Jigmet Dadul from the Snow Leopard Conservancy India is the number ONE snow leopard tracker in Ladakh. He is a charming man who has seen more snow leopards than anyone. That was a great start.

Once we left Leh on the trail in Hemis National Park our days had the same pattern. At 7 am Jigmet goes off scouting in the valleys, either alone or with one or two of our group. He walks the valley floor looking for sign and movement. Once he’s walked past rocky outcrops where cats may linger he smooths over the snow to cover his tracks. If a snow leopard makes a track later it is easier to see. Once he showed me a pugmark in the sand near a rock. He indented his fingers into the sand next to it so he could tell how old the mark was.

Our tents in the snow in Husing valley Hemis National Park. Photo Sibylle Noras.

Meanwhile at 7 am Samstang would wake us with a cup of tea and at 8 am we’d have a huge hot breakfast in our blue communal dining tent. When Jigmet came back around 8.30 he would give us a report of any sign and after he’d had had breakfast, we’d start off.

The days were cold, often we guessed around minus 10 degrees. I found the going tough, trekking up to high ridges and sitting on rocky outcrops in the snow, scanning 360 degrees around us for hours in the cold.

Choespang brought our hot lunches and tea each day we were scanning for snow leopard. Photo Sibylle Noras.

Each day, when we reached our scanning ridge, Jigmet radioed back to camp and at lunchtime, up came Choespang, in his rubber boots, carrying 2 thermos flasks, one for soup, one for tea. He also carried a pressure cooker full of hot rice. We were so happy to see him. His hot goodies kept us going till about 5 pm, close to when the sun went down and it became even colder.

Blue Sheep are really a type of wild goat and are prime snow leopard prey. This small group kept us amused for hours the day before our snow leopard sighting. Photo Sibylle Noras.

The first four days we saw lots of Blue Sheep. These delightful animals are actually wild goats although they look like a type of deer. They are primary snow leopard prey. We also saw two beautiful red foxes, with their rusty colored body fur and white plume tails. One day we saw 4 Golden eagles, beautiful birds. They take baby Blue Sheep and throw them onto the rocks below to kill them before they eat them.

Each day we saw tantalising pug-marks, snow leopard tracks in the snow. We also saw spray marks on rocks, telling us that snow leopards were moving through the valley.

It’s estimated there are about 30 snow leopards in Hemis National Park (at 4000 square km the largest NP in India). Jigmet said where we were searching there were 5 to 6 cats. A big job to find a cat the size of a large dog, with fantastic camouflage in a hundred-square km of high altitude valleys.

Our first day we met a group of trekkers who’d seen a cat way in the distance for a short time. We hoped that their luck would rub off on us. Even with their 600m lenses it was tiny but I thought to myself, I’d be happy with that. We heard of another group here recently for 17 days that didn’t see a cat at all.

The nights were freezing, around 20 degrees below zero. The condensation from my breath froze into tiny icicles around the top of my sleeping bag. Luckily the bag was excellent, made for the Indian Army up here in Ladakh.

Snow leopard tracks on the frozen river. Photo Sibylle Noras.

Friday the 25^th February started like all the other days.

Jigmet had gone out with Thomas and John at 7.30 trekking up the Tarbung valley looking for sign. Katie, Jamie and I were sitting down to breakfast when KC Namgyal, Jigmet’s colleague at the SLC ran into our tent, yelling “Shan! Snow Leopard!”. OMG! I dropped the plates and the cup, grabbed my stocks and camera, pulled boots on quickly. I ran with Namgyal, along the frozen river. I heard the water rushing beneath the ice and was petrified. I guessed we ran about 300m along the river, then 300 m along rocky scree with a ridge that was only about 20cm wide and past a boulder hanging in thin air. I ran, walked, and dragged myself 500m along the valley and up an incline for 200m. It all seemed like a hundred km to me, as my lungs were bursting and my shoes filled with snow. But all I could think about was seeing this snow leopard! What if it moved before I got there?

Our snow leopard sleeping on her rocky ledge. Photo Jigmet Dadul and Sibylle Noras.

Finally I got to the scope. I looked up at the rocks across the valley and saw the most beautiful cat in the world and immediately burst into tears. Jigmet was sitting further up and he called to me. Another 5 mins of breathless climbing and I looked into his scope which had an even better view. I burst into tears again!

Jigmet said it’s a female, about 7 to 8 years old. The scope made her look as if she was about 50m away, we saw her lie and stretch and look up. At times she was asleep and her front paws would push up into the air and make little running movements as if she was chasing Blue Sheep in her sleep. Then she’d open her eyes and peer at us, if one of us walked down the hill. She could see us but it was obvious she felt no fear. Then she’d wrap her enormous tail around herself like a scarf.

Our snow leopard watching us across the valley. This shot was taken with my compact camera through the scope. Although its blurry I love it as it gives the cat a 'ghost like' appearance. Photo Jigmet Dadul and Sibylle Noras.

Altogether we watched her for 8 hours. Jigmet thought she’d just eaten a Blue Sheep and so would rest for a few days before moving on. Occasionally she’d stand up and put her rear end down as if about to nestle, then suddenly turn around and lay down in the opposite spot staring out at the wind, at birds, at scents across the valley until she fell asleep again.

That night in the dining tent we toasted the snow leopard, toasted Jigmet and toasted ourselves. The fact that we’d had such a day with this mystical cat was remarkable and special. But more importantly we toasted the Snow Leopard Conservancy and the local people of this region who were now helping to protect their spectacular and iconic  “Ghost of the Mountain”. May there be many many more generations of snow leopards in the cold valleys of Hemis National Park.

Thanks Jigmet, thanks to our hardworking staff team who made fabulous food, kept the ‘hottie bottie’s’ coming into our sleeping bags at night and looked after us so well. Thanks to KarmaQuest for their great organisation. And thanks to Thomas, Katie, Andrew, John and Jamie for being such charming companions on this incredible trek. I’ll never forget this day.