The trail of the Holy Grail

Left Delhi on the 7th 0f Feb to track and have a glimpse of the elusive snow leopard Called shan in ladhaki. There was great apprehension and fear in my mind, as I was getting into unexplored zone. Mathematics  never scared me but this time a simple sign change had me terrorized. Mumbai is 23 degrees and in Leh it was -23 degrees.

  As they say something well begun is half done. The trip started on a good omen I should say as my flight was the first in a week to take off from Delhi and also the hopping flight was changed to a direct one to accommodate more of the stranded passengers.

  My friend Vijay Kumar who was kind enough to make all the arrangements for the trip had me picked from leh airport. I stayed with him at karu till the 8th to acclimatize myself to the cold and the high altitude.

Day 1

 Me, Jigmet the guide and Stanzin the helper started for Zingchang from leh by road.

Me and Stanzin at the start of the trek to Rumbak valley

The trek from Zingchang to Rumbek village took us around 5 hours. On the way I was like a toddler learning to walk all over again. Walking on ice was  completely different then normal walking. We used to hear loud bangs as we walked and I was informed it was the ice cracking due to heat of the sun. We reached Rumbek village at around 5 in the evening. Rumbek village has around 9 families and all of them offer home stays. Every house has a name and the one where I stayed was called chunba meaning Grass.

view of Rumbak Village

 The  home stay lived up to its name with the family being warm and kind made you feel at home.the room was neat and basic

Room where i stayed

Day 2

         The day was spent in a valley called kharlung, which we reached after a trek of about 1 hour from Rumbek village we spent the entire day scanning the high ridges. We spotted Chukar, magpies, blue sheep, Red billed chough, Yak and fresh pug marks of a pair of wolfs but there was no sign of the snow leopard.

Chukar

black- billed magpie

yak at the village

Red-Billed Chough

Blue sheep

Robin Accentor

Day 3

       We started before sunrise in freezing cold, we wanted to reach Husing valley in time as my guide thought we had a good chance of spotting the snow leopard there.

the early morning view as we left the village

We were hurrying along and suddenly I slipped on ice and was flat on my back. In the process my gloves came off and my left hand was in contact with ice for about 5 minutes and after that it was all hell for me as my hand started hurting as if all my fingers were broken.

The frozen river which we had to cross. i slipped here and fell

Luckily my guide and the helper found some dry twigs and started a fire. The fire got the blood flowing and the searing pain subsided. 

15 valuable minutes were lost and when we reached Husing the campsite was bursting with excitement and something told me I had missed the fun. Yes we had arrived 5 minutes late the whole camp comprising of around 15 people (mostly foreigners) had just seen 2 snow leopards.

The place where people spotted the leopards. i saw these blue sheeps only

I was like a punctured balloon and my shoulders sagged seeing this Jigmet told me that it was not the end of the world we would see him today and asked me to fallow him. He went up a steep path leading up to a ridge that was around 600 ft. above the place from where people had seen the snow leopards. I think the anger within me for having fallen and missed the sight that was the very reason I had braved the extreme cold and physical exertion made me climb up to the ridge like a manic. I was so mad that I reached the highest point that was about 200 feet higher then where the others had stopped. I set up my camera and waited.

At the top and waiting

Others on their way. A view from the top

Jigmet at work.looking through the spotting scope for a long time makes you dizzy.

Stanzin justifying his title-Helper

After about half hour of waiting. The magic word was uttered by one of the guides “lamba dhum”(so called because of the length of its tail which is nearly as long as its body). My helper spotted it before me and then I too spotted the majestic male moving across the snow on the opposite ridge. I took a few photos that were just record shots as he was very far to get a good picture even with a 600mm lens plus a 2X TC. What my single 50 mm camera sensor missed my own God given twin 50mm sensors registered and savored. I followed him across the snow through my camera. He sat down on the edge of the valley and stayed there for another 30 minutes before he decided to step into the valley and disappear.

A sight forever!!!!!!!!!!!

Heros Basking in the limelight

A dream was achieved. I have seen the Tiger, the Lion and the Leopard but I can tell you the feeling of seeing the snow leopard was beyond anything. Probably the effort made it special.

Day 4

      We wanted to get on to another ridge from where the valley into which the male disappeared would be visible. But half way up the temperature fell to -20 and was dipping with every meter. At that point my toes started loosing sensation. We decided to go back down to the village.

we aimed to reach the top of this ridge but had to give-up as temperatures reached -20

Thus ending all hopes of seeing the Lambh Dhum again. The rest of the day was spent playing with the kids of the village skiing on the snow on locally made skis.

The Homemade skis with brakes

Kids on the go

We decided to go back home as the weather started deteriorating and these two kids decided to take free ride up to the village

Free Ride to the village

Day 5

      We started our trek back to Leh.the sad part of the walk back was that a great trip in to snow leopard country had ended the happy part was that I was getting out of the extreme negative temperature zone. 

on the way back

A final glimpse of the Rumbak valley

A view from the top of the semi frozen indus

I came to leh wishing to get atleast a glimpse of the magnificent snow leopard and I got it. Instead of being a satisfied soul I want a closer encounter with him so will return and stay for a longer period next year.

Bought this as a memento from the homestay family at firingi rates!!!!!