This is a long-overdue post but for the last 8 days we have been in the Rumbak Valley about 3 or 400 metres higher than Leh and about 90 minutes drive away, further up in the mountains and completely off-grid without access to cell coverage or internet. We returned to Leh yesterday and I write this in our hotel, snow-bound as our flight to Delhi has been cancelled by a blizzard until, with luck, tomorrow.

As I mentioned in my last post, our first two days in Leh were meant to be ‘rest’ days. The altitude protocol requires that we spend those days inactive and resting so as to acclimate to the altitude. However, we spent our first two days doing everything but resting. On arrival at our hotel, the Leh Grand Dragon, we received word that a snow leopard on a kill had been spotted about 90 minutes outside of town. Accordingly we tore through our lunch, grabbed our equipment and headed for the sighting.

There are 7 of us in the group, 4 Americans, V and I and a charming Australian woman travelling on her own. There are 4 cars for our use so each couple has their own car and driver. The vehicles are quite roomy and comfortable but they need to be, the roads, such as they are, can be brutal.

We all piled into our cars and after a bumpy run up the valley reached a small village up the rocky mountainside perched astride a small stream. Outside the village and 3 or 400 metres up the mountain we could barely see a snow leopard camouflaged in the rocks looking down at his kill, a domestic yak, lying at the side of the stream.

Let me describe the scene because it represents our experiences for the rest of the trip.

By the way, do not be surprised when you see my images that the landscape is barren, rocky and virtually without snow. This region is a high-altitude desert which rarely experiences snow in winter. The snow falls begin in late February and essentially mark the very early beginnings of spring. The first heavy snowfall of the season occurred yesterday and that is why we are snow-bound with all flights cancelled.

Snow Leopard are actually genetically more closely related to tigers rather than to leopards. Their faces and heads are much bigger and heavier than is the case for leopards.

Now, let me tell you about snow leopard photography. You first need to know that at any one time, there are somewhere between 60-80 people in this area who have come in expressly to see and photograph snow leopards. Those 60-80 people are supported by spotters, drivers and support people. The spotters and support people arrive in their own cars. At a rough estimate there is at least one support person/ spotter per photographer. That means that if even half of the photographers come to a sighting, and I can assure you that at all of our sightings there were well more than 50%, then there are at least 60-80 people and 20+vehicles and usually more.

Scavenger standoff from 400+ metres. My lens is at 1200mm but really difficult to get a good clean shot from almost half a kilometre away.

Let me continue. Unlike Africa where game can be mere metres from a vehicle, in all instances in Ladakh the snow leopards are at least 200 metres from the photographer and more often than not significantly farther away. Effectively this means that virtually every photographer is on a tripod since at a minimum you need a 900mm lens or ideally much longer, you just cannot reliably hand-hold these brutes at full extension. So we now have 30-40+ cameras mounted on tripods and at least that number of spotter scopes on tripods. It’s not hard to get the picture. A forest of tripods and photographers and spotters all jockeying for prime position, a sea of cars filling the track and dozens of people all trying to make the most of the moment…wildlife paparazzi.

And to answer your question, why are the leopards at least 200+ metres away? Well partly due to protocol, maintaining a safe distance for the safety of the animal, but largely for the same reason that celebrities live in gated communities. Neither celebrities nor snow leopards want to be intimately surrounded by a huge ring of people, cameras, tripods and cars.

Standard practice for a day on a sighting. The animal has fed overnight and removed itself from its kill and moved to a higher position on the mountain to keep an eye on the landscape. We arrive early and get a good position so as to be well sited when the cat comes back down at some point to continue eating. By 9 or 10 in the morning the full entourage of photographers and supporters is in place and the wait begins. The temperature has been between -10 and -20 during the day but no one leaves, all waiting for the cat to move. During the course of the day support people keep hot coffee and tea coming and hot food distributed from thermoses while we all wait next to our cameras. A community is built over the course of the day as people, most of whom you have seen on previous days chats and gets to know one another. But for all the reasons above the cat, hungry as it increasingly becomes over the day, just will not approach the kill. So as we begin to lose the light after 5pm, cars begin to move away to start the process all over again tomorrow while the cat waits for all the cars to leave so that she can continue her meal. We and the cat have all been out-waiting each other in the cold for 8 or 9 hours seeing who would break first.

That description covers our first sighting and all the ones that followed, nonetheless I did manage to get some good shots on day one and I was pleased. Day two, our second ‘rest’ day followed the same pattern but in an entirely different area with a different leopard and again I did manage to get some shots. However if it sounds like cognitive dissonance to be pleased with my shots after describing the circumstances in which they were taken, I have some thoughts and I will share these with you in my next post.

More to come!

Leh, Ladakh - Feb 28, 2025

Gerald fitzgerald, photography

Leh, Ladakh - Feb 28, 2025

Leh, Ladakh - Feb 20, 2025

Gerald fitzgerald, photography