Snow Leopard Tours in Ladakh
Published on: July 15, 2021
It’s minus 20 degrees Celsius outside and I slip on my fleece lined North Face slippers and venture out. I am greeted by a Tolkienesque type scene outside our simple Ladakh homestay. A half-circle of mountains surrounds us and snow envelopes the hill sides like newly washed linen. I search for my binoculars and I am rewarded with a distant sighting of a huge male Ibex. However, we are here in Ladakh looking for the ‘Grey Ghost’ of the mountains and the excitement will go up to a whole new level, if we are lucky enough to see Snow Leopards on our expertly designed small group Snow Leopard tour. Believe me, this is like no other India wildlife holiday you will ever travel on.
Where to see Snow Leopards
Before I saw my first Snow Leopard in Ladakh in 2012 – we were lucky enough to have 7 separate sightings – I read a lot about possible locations to see and photograph Snow Leopards and spoke to several tour leaders and wildlife photographers who had visited such diverse locations as Mongolia and Kazakhstan. Indeed, the first decent film of a Snow Leopard running down a mountainside, made by the BBC, was actually filmed in Pakistan – right on the border with Afghanistan – so, they needed special permission to be able to film in that location and get the amazing footage which thrilled the world of nature lovers.
Mongolia has been widely promoted as one of the best locations to see Snow Leopards at relatively low altitude ranges (between 2000-3000M). I have spoke quite recently to photographers who have visited and they did see them; but I would not say the photographs were on the same level as a good sighting in Ladakh. Wildlife Trails have also organised wildlife holidays in Mongolia to see both Pallas Cat and Snow Leopard and because the range and denning sites for the Pallas Cat are smaller we tend to get the best photography results with this species, whereas the sightings of the Snow Leopard remain distant and only seen clearly through powerful scopes.
So from all our research and personal visits we have concluded the best places to see Snow Leopards are in Ladakh India and the Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh. The main difference between these two locations is the logistics to get to them as the Spiti Valley is much more remote and involves a fairly ardous two day road journey from Chandigarh to reach it (see below for more insight).
Hemis National Park and its Snow Leopards
When we first set up camp in Hemis National Park back in February 2012; the first people we met as we walked with our donkeys to the tented camp, was a small group of wildlife photographers who had just spent 5 days in the valley without seeing a Snow Leopard. It was not a good omen for our group, but as always at the start of a big cat safari, you try to remain optimistic for the week ahead. We knew that we were there at the best time of year; as winter time in Ladakh see the Snow Leopards favourite prey – blue sheep – coming down to the lower slopes in search of food. The Snow Leopards simply follow this annual migration and try to take advantage of groups of hungry blue sheep. It is also an advantage for the human led Snow Leopard tours; as they do not need to climb as high in the mountains to find the Snow Leopards and thus reduce the chances of altitude sickness.
The advantage of Hemis national park, despite the fact that it is quite crowded these days, is that you have a lot of expert spotters with scopes in a relatively small area, which means a great chance each day for any movement of the snow leopards to be seen and then relayed to the various groups. It is then a question of seeing if the Snow Leopard is simply moving through one of the many valley’s, or possibly keeping an eye on a recent kill from a higher vantage point. If there is a kill, you have so much more chance of spending quality time with this beautiful leopard and hopefully managing to get a few photos. The guides and spotters will decide what they feel is the best position to observe the Snow Leopard without disturbing it, and that sometimes involve a steep trek to an observation mound. You can then stay pretty much all day there with lunch and hot drinks being brought up the mountain to keep you warm and fueled up for the cold day ahead.
Generally my personal observation from leading three Snow Leopard tours in Ladakh, is that this big cat feels more comfortable when the human observers/groups are positioned below it, and it can see where they are, and make a decision about how close it wants to come when it starts to move. Finding food in this harsh environment is never easy, so they will always keep an eye on their kill and visit it on a regular basis to feed.
Snow Leopard Lodge Uley
Back in 2012 when we camped for a week in Hemis National Park we added in an extension to Uley after the main part of the Snow Leopard tour. The main reason for that from a wildlife point of view was to see two different species of Ungulates that were difficult to see in Hemis; they were Bharal and Ibex.
Uley is a small village located in a spectacular valley with 360 degree views of stunning snow topped mountains and located at an altitude of just over 4000m. You normally see the Bharal quite close to the road as you drive from Leh to Uley, and they are also found in areas close to your accommodation. Ibex are also found close by but often right on top of the ridges that surround the village; so we are talking at about 5000M altitude, so not an easy hike to get up closer to them. More often than not you see their impressive silhouette on the skyline as the huge males lead their herds through the mountains keeping a watchful eye out for a Snow Leopard lying in wait for them.
As with many wildlife locations where rare animals are spotted the village or location evolves over the years and better accommodation and a more professional approach arrives in the area. In the case of Uley when we stayed back in 2012, the rooms were very basic and part of a family owned ‘Homestay’ and the outside toilet was never an attractive option when the temperatures dropped below -15C. Since then several new homestays have been built or developed although it still feels at heart like a small mountain hamlet with relatively few people staying there. Within Uley there are three different observation areas walkable from your accommodation, although the low temperatures and need for hours and hours of patience when searching for them requires a certain level of fortitude.
Spiti Valley Snow Leopard Tours – the pros and the cons
Around 2018 I became aware of a new Snow Leopard tour location in India and the reports were very exciting and pushed me to visit the area with a local Indian photographer who had taken some award winning photos here. The excitment was centred around the fact that the Snow Leopards in Spiti Valley were initiating spectacular hunts for the Ibex which are found in good numbers in this small mountain community located in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.
The rumours of the chance of seeing Snow Leopards hunting Ibex had not only attracted many wildlife photographers but also a UK film crew eager to film these supreme mountain ‘athletes’. Sure enough, we only had to wait one day for a male snow leopard to literally run down a steep cliff and make a kill. The victim was a huge male Ibex who ended up frozen to a small stream at the bottom of the valley. The film crew had special permission to film from a camoflaged hide down in the valley but we had to content ourselves by shotting from what felt like a precarious position from the mountain side road and managed to get some amazing video and photos of the Snow Leopard walking on top of the Ibex and feeding from its flank.
What I have not mentioned yet is the very difficult car journey required to reach the Spiti Valley from Chandigarh. We fly from Delhi to Chandigarh in the winter months because it is the most reliable flight, despite there being a flight to Shimla (not reliable when we travelled!) which would shave a few hours from the 17 to 18 hours of travel to Kibber. Please don’t try to use Google Maps for this journey as many of the mountain passes are closed for winter and early Spring – for example, the route from Chandigarh via Manali.
Such mountain roads are in a constant state of disrepair, and you will regularly encounter road gangs and special signs for ‘shooting stones!’, which can make the heart beat a little faster. Some of the roads are also very bumpy so anyone with a history of back trouble or very prone to car sickness should definitely go with the short flight to Ladakh and a stay at the Snow Leopard Lodge.
Best time of year to see Snow Leopards in India
There are two key seasons to consider when planning your Snow Leopard wildlife holiday and they are winter – for the reasons already explained – and the month of October; which is the blue sheep rutting season. When the male sheep rut they lose a huge amount of conditioning due to their constant battles with other territorial males and that leaves them in a more weakened state if pursued by a adult snow leopard. In addition, the blue sheep are sometimes distracted by the battles themselves and are not fully alert to the presence of the supreme predator of the Himalayas. As a potential visitor you may also consider that temperatures are likely to be less harsh in October, compared to January/February and this may make you consider planning a Snow Leopard tour at this time.
Photographing Snow Leopards in Ladkah, India – What to expect
Firstly, don’t expect a ‘head shot’, or it walking slowly past your gas heated Ladakh homestay – although you just never know! During my first two Snow Leopard tours in 2012 and 2013, I lost count of the number of hours spent scanning seemingly empty mountain peaks – save for the odd blue sheep or Ptarmigan – hoping to catch a glimpse of the Snow Leopard and set myself up to take a photograph. More often than not it is your local guide who will see it first and then you have to decide from where you are going to photograph the Snow Leopard from. Often with a lone Snow Leopard who was lying down, you had plenty of time to walk and set up your cameras, as they would often not move until we started to lose the light at around 4-5pm. It was quite common to be at least 600-800M away from the subject and only when we found a Snow Leopard on a blue sheep kill, did we cut that distance to something more manageable for a 500-600mm lens.
Some of the great wild Snow Leopard photographs on the web have either involved very lucky photographers, or a known Snow Leopard kill being moved to enable a photography group to be able to get closer to their subject. I question the ethics of this, because at the end of the day you are interfering with the kill of an animal, which is so important for its survival during the harsh winter months. Also, there is something to be said for more ‘distant’ photographs of Snow Leopards, really placing the big cat in its true environment and showing the full beauty of this special region.
Perfect Snow Leopard tour for Softies
Of course we want you to get some ‘killer’ shots of the Snow Leopard during your India wildlife holiday in Ladakh, but we also want you to be comfortable and happy. So, in the last 7 years we have worked with our local agents and expert Snow Leopard guides to create a bespoke safari which provides a much higher level of comfort that in the ‘old days’. We now base ourselves in gas heated homestays in Ladakh, with proper beds and mattresses and western toilets. No rough stony pitch sites for your tent, or having to warm your hands with those gel packets! If it is your lifetime dream to see Snow Leopards in the wild, then check out our ‘comfort’ small group Snow Leopard tour.
