Snow Leopard: The Himalayan Ghost

The sun had set, the temperature had dropped from 0 to -20 degree Celsius, the lack of oxygen was being felt at an altitude of 4500 meters. Here was our first encounter when we started looking for him. I had read a lot about him before coming here, but I was feeling a lot of difference between the book and the reality. The heart-wrenching rocks and mountains here, he knew every sound here very well. He knew a lot about the intelligence routes passing through the mountains. He used to disappear from the front while walking. As if there is a ghost, when snow falls like rain from the sky, when the ground is covered with a sheet of white snow, when even the hutiya starts shivering from the cold, then it comes from the high mountains towards the village. We may have to pay a lot to find him. Now this search has become a mission, a huge mission to find a living ghost, The Himalayan Ghost of Spiti Valley.

This mission begins in chimchim far away from Shimla when me and my friends met a resident living there. Who were supposed to help us find Snow Leopard. We were in Shimla for 2 days. We did as much shopping as we could in 2 days, explored every by-lane here, tried everything we could, ate a lot of food and traveled as much as we could. The atmosphere of the evening here is very pleasant and the fragrance was spread all around. I have given all the information about Shimla in this blog of mine. You can easily read that now let’s move ahead in our search for the Himalayan Ghost of Spiti Valley.

Simla to Kalpa – Till now the ghost of Snow Leopard had not descended on us, still our mind was wandering in the streets of Shimla and only then the journey from Shimla to Kalpa started. There were very beautiful scenes, even two eyes were less to see the scenes. Where should I see, where should I not see, I could not understand anything. The beauty here was very interesting. Every turn of the road was a slide show in itself. Just turn the steering of the car and another picture would appear in front of you. Now the high rangers of the Himalayas were visible. Slowly, seeing those mountains, our mission was coming in front like the flash of a camera. Somewhere there was a feeling that after just 2 days, we have to find him with all our heart because this was the top point of our bucket list of life. If we came back without seeing him, then the whole journey was dry.

Shimla to Kufri, Kufri to Narkanda – Rampur – Karcham to Champa, in this journey of 200 kms, the terrain was changing gradually, plants replaced trees and then stones replaced plants. As soon as we were coming closer to Kalpa, the same Himalayan holidays which were seen from a distance were now on our head.

Where does it really happen that you think and it happens. Snowfall had already started in Kalpa even before we woke up in the morning. Right now we are going towards kaza from here. Which is 200 kilometers away from here. We are in constant contact with the boys who live in Snow Leopards Point in Kaza.
When the mind is so happy from inside, it is so happy that when the tongue does not work, each and every crystal of snow falling from the sky was raining stars. I didn’t want to leave Kalpa but there was a way ahead which was pulling our destination closer to us. Slowly the snow clouds moved further away and the golden sun of Spiti Valley came out. On the way, we saw frozen lakes at some places, which reminded me of the movie Narnia that I had seen in my childhood.

Now was the time when we were going closer to the destination with our heart and mind.

As we reached closer to the Himalayas, we saw a group of Himalayan Ibex for the first time, then we realized the presence of wildlife. After seeing the Ibex, we came to know how difficult this mission is going to be because they were exactly matching the stones there. If they were matching this much with the stones, then it would be challenging to see the snow leopard.

The sun was out, yet the temperature was below -15. Along with the question of whether snow leopard will be seen or not, there was also some unseen thing around us like cold, we do not see cold but we definitely feel it like oxygen, we do not even see oxygen but due to lack of it there can be trouble. And like snow, snow, we all see people making cool Instagram reels in slow motion with snow on new songs. Don’t know how those people do it, but the condition used to get worse as soon as we saw snow. But walking on snow was a big difference between reels and real, and this is where the snow was the most difficult to find Snow Leopard.

Here we saw many Himalayan Blue Sheep sitting in the sun.

Snow Leopard could come in front of us anytime and cross the path in front of us, this was our thinking. But the reality was different. We were on our way from Kaza to Chicham, our final destination. Kaza was at an altitude of 3800 meters and chicham was 700 meters higher than that. Now it was getting colder and the air was getting thinner. Now we had come in the area of Himalaya’s Ghost Snow Leopard, we were alert. On the way, we were getting aware of the footprints of animals and that area.
Before reaching Chicham, we were trying to sharpen our eyesight so that we could differentiate between animals and stones.

We reached Chicham at 5:00 pm. And its height is 4500 meters, the current temperature here is -12 degree Celsius. The temperature here will drop very low at night. Next day we will search for Snow Leopard.

Next day morning we went out with our guide to see Snow Leopard. We get the news that the scanner has seen snow leopard in Chicham valley and at the same time news also comes from key monastery that someone has seen snow leopard there too.

As soon as we reached key monastery, we came to know that snow leopard has been seen from the top of the mountains and we have to climb to the top of this mountain. It was a very big mountain peak when seen from below. To climb here, we had to trek for almost 1 to 2 hours. This mountain looked dangerous in itself.

Two things were running in my mind. Firstly, the leopard that we have come here to see should be a new one, if it is the one from Chicham valley, then coming here will be in vain. If this leopard had left here, then our plan to come here had failed. We were walking straight uphill, each step up was bringing exhaustion and weakness. The thought of whether it will be seen or not was also reducing the enthusiasm. Then a man came down from the top of the mountain towards us and told us that a leopard has been seen there but he has now gone behind the stones. Still we kept climbing and trying to reach the top. Slowly we reached the top of this mountain. The scanner, guide and everyone’s eyes were alert, even a slight movement around would assure us of his presence, but it did not happen.
We stood on this mountain till evening, the leopard’s footprints were seen on the snow, which means it was the snow leopard. Till now the confusion was not resolved whether this leopard seen in the chicham valley and the monastery was the same or both were different.

Here we had only one task, wake up in the morning, pack your backpack and go to the mountains to find snow leopard. We were completely unaware of what was happening in the world. There was only one aim, keep yourself healthy in this cold and find that wild life living in the snow as much as possible and capture it in the camera in the eyes.

Here on the mountains I saw many Himalayan Blue Sheep, I was looking at them so that maybe Snow Leopard comes here to hunt them and I can see them.

Till now I was considering myself as unlucky as I was searching for Snow Leopard for so many hours but I could not see even one till now. But my luck supported me a little and I saw a beautiful red fox sitting on the top of the mountains. And it was looking very beautiful.

After waiting for a long time, we got a call from Hikkim that snow leopard has just been sighted. Hikkim is about 2 hours away from here. I headed towards Hikkim crossing my fingers and remembering God that maybe I would get to see snow leopards there, I was eagerly waiting for it for a few days. Today 2 hours journey seemed like a long journey to me I was waiting here in the cold for many days and hours to see the snow report and now after traveling only 2 hours I will get a chance to see this leopard . I was very happy thinking this thing. We didn’t want to miss this opportunity so without thinking twice we headed towards Hikkim.
When I reached there and what I saw there, all my tiredness of a few days went away. I saw snow leopard for the first time in my life. There were about 3 leopards here. They were walking on the mountains like we walk on a plain road. The view of this snow leopard was very beautiful and interesting to see. It was a very beautiful scene of our life till now. There was a whole family of snow leopard here.

I can never forget this journey, this story in my life. I will remember for the rest of my life how I was freezing here in the mountains for two-three days. I used to watch snow leopard on discovery and national geographic channel since childhood, but today I was very happy to see it with my own eyes. I hope you find this story very interesting. And if you ever come here, you must come to see Snow Leopard. You may sometimes feel that the snow leopard is not visible to you. Do not give up your courage at that time. There is a very interesting dialogue in a movie – If you really want something, then the whole universe tries to make it meet you. I believe you must have seen snow leopards here. See you now in your next journey till then take care of yourself.

I wish everyone to explore this beautiful world and learn the things to make our world a better place to live. With this, if you enjoyed reading this blog, do comment and share it with your friends and family and keep following Nomad Rahgir..