• This photo feature is about author experience of tracking snow leopard in Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh. Yeah Dil Mange More.

Some journeys never leave you. In 2013, I spent thirteen gruelling days in Hemis National Park, Ladakh, scanning barren ridgelines and frozen valleys in search of one of the world's most elusive predators. On the very last day, from nearly a kilometre away, I caught a fleeting silhouette of a snow leopard — a ghost dissolving into the grey rock. It was enough. It was more than enough. And yet, for over a decade, that glimpse lived in me like an unanswered question.

This year, I returned to the Himalayas - to the remote Spiti Valley. The plan was simple in theory: winter brings heavy snowfall, drives prey animals downhill, and the snow leopard follows. The mountains, however, had other plans.

Climate change has been quietly rewriting Spiti's winters, and this season was no exception — sparse snow, exposed terrain, and a big cat blending perfectly into the dry, muted landscape. The ghost was still out there. Finding it would demand everything.

1 Landscape.

On Day 2, fortune offered a tease. A snow leopard and her cub appeared briefly on a distant slope, climbing with that effortless, liquid grace that seems to defy gravity, before vanishing behind a curtain of rock. We marked the spot and decided to return at first light.

The next morning, our team made the punishing trek back — 14,700 feet above sea level, sub-zero temperatures, thin air that turned every step into a negotiation between body and will. Around the Demulu village region, our spotters fanned out across the hillside while I set up my camera in the snow and waited.

2

The mountain was silent. A hare darted past us — a small, joyful surprise. Then, without warning, a herd of domestic sheep on a distant slope erupted into a chaotic sprint. In the same instant, there was a puff of dust rising from the hillside. 

3a Blending seamlessly with the Rocky Terrain, Snow Leopard remained until the chase began. Moments later, dust settled and she had her prey.

3 Sneaking under a rock for shade while keeping an eye on the kill which rolled few meters from her.

With incredible strength, she dragged the sheep away to conceal it from scavengers.

She had been there the entire time, perfectly still, perfectly invisible, watching — and then she moved. One explosive burst, and a sheep was down. The snow leopard had made her kill and was gone before our minds had fully registered what our eyes had seen. She dragged the carcass to safety, then melted back up the mountain.

We waited. From nine in the morning until the light began to soften at five in the evening, we held our positions in the biting cold, cameras trained on the kill site.

Then she came — descending cautiously with her cub trailing close behind, pausing at every rock to scan the valley below before taking another step. It was at one of these pauses that I clicked the shutter. She stood frozen against the stone, eyes sweeping the landscape, ancient instinct and raw intelligence written across every line of her body.

4

Twelve years after that first distant silhouette in Hemis, I finally had my answer. The low oxygen, the ice underfoot, the hours of frozen stillness — all of it dissolved in that single, perfect moment. The snow leopard is not just an animal; she is a reminder that the wildest, most extraordinary things on this earth still exist, still endure, and still ask something of us if we want to find them. You have to earn the ghost - Spiti Valley, Winter 2025

How to reach 

I flew into Chandigarh from where we drove to Kaza in Spiti Valley. Enroute we stopped at Rampur for the night though some groups stop of Kalpa.

6 Pic of Kinner Kailash by Neeraj Jain.

From Kaza we drove via Key Monastery, crossed the Chicham bridge that connects villages Chicham and Kibber. The bridge is said to be the second highest suspension bridge in Asia. The gorge below is 1,000 feet below.

7 Chicham Bridge by Sid Shetty.

8 View of Chicham village from Kibber. Chicham is where one camps for snow leopard sighting. 2001.

Where did we stay?

We stayed at a Home Stay in Kaza. It is about 21 kms from Chicham. We would reach Chicham around 9 am and head back to Kaza around 6.30 pm.

9 Spiti River as viewed from Kaza. 2001.

Also read

1. Other Author Pictures

2. Banjara Experiences  or Incredible Spiti

3. The Best of Spiti Valley and Kinnaur

4. Spiti Valley Album