Snow leopard quest

In February 2017 I ran my first small group snow leopard trip to Hemis national park in the Himalayas. Such was the success and the beauty of this region that I will definitely be organising other tours there in the future. Please contact me here to express an interest and I’ll keep you updated as soon as I know the dates and details of my next snow leopard quest.

So what are the chances of seeing a snow leopard ?

If you’d asked me that question about ten years ago my reply would have been – very very low. But over the last decade a steady trickle of people come to Hemis national park in search of these elusive cats and something seems to have changed. On my last trip we saw three snow leopards during our time there. One had just killed a blue sheep and we observed it three days on the trot from about 400 metres away. It definitely knew our small band of people were there but we were no threat to it. In fact some people live in these valleys all year round and so snow leopards are used to seeing humans in their territory. The mountain guides have also become artful at spotting snow leopards and use walkie-talkies to keep us informed of any sightings. So although we have to view any snow leopard sightings as a bonus on these trips the chances of an encounter are now quite high these days. And what a great excuse to head to an area of utter beauty and explore these inspiring mountains.