“Fear combined with excitement” was the emotion that I would describe I felt in the days preceding the  winter trip to Hemis National Park in search of the most elusive and mystical mammals , the snow leopard .    My friend , Shivaram  , a fellow financial market professional turned wanderlust and wildlife enthusiast /photographer had undertaken the trip last year and had managed to spot the elusive cat but a great photograph eluded him .  He , in his true dogged style swore to go there every year till he got a tack sharp, whisker counting photograph of the ‘Shan’ or ‘ Lamba Dhum’ as the Snow Leopard is called in Laddakhi language .  I counted myself in into his trip this year along with  Varun  and shiva made all the arrangements for our nine night camping trip to Husing Valley , near Rumbak Village .

I had my daily dose of doubts as Accuweather.com/leh became the most visited website on my browser all of January and I asked Shiva all kinds of doubts whenever he popped up on Social Media .  Keeping my hands inside the Fridge Freezer for a few minutes was my OCD like behavior to gauge what it would feel like in -25 Degrees , even as I read blog accounts  of the coldest temperatures people had endured and how they had done it.  The thought of nine nights inside a tent in -25 Degrees for a thoroughbred chennai body naturally brought many questions that were thrown at poor Shiva and he answered them as best as he could , including questions like “will there be mosquitoes  ?”  Shiva gave me advice on what not to do , based on his limited experience of last year .  Shopping for Sleeping Bags capable of  handling -29 degrees on Amazon and numerous visits to Decathlon.in prepared us equipment wise  for the trip.

My agonizing wait for D Day finally ended when, after spending a couple of days with Varun in Delhi ,  we boarded the flight to Leh on the 31st Morning .  On board , I pulled on layer after layer in a mental frame of mind of  a certain M.S.K Prasad going out to face Mc Grath and Brett Lee on the opening day of a Test Match at Perth .  “Baahar ka Taapmaan minus thereh degree celcius hai ”  came the announcement of the stewardess as we walked out of the plane onto the Tarmac and to my surprise  i found my chennai tambrahm body did not freeze in mid air .  I told my body “This is it dude . For the next ten days you HAVE to take whatever shit is thrown at you . Never give up !”

Hotel Mahey Retreat in Leh  , where we stayed for two days to acclimatize to the altitude was a haven of comfort with Room heating and Wi Fi Facilities, which I used to the hilt to be in contact with my world before being totally cut off  . We met groups of people there who were going on the Chadar Trek on the Zanskar and we were amazed at the number of people who were doing this Trek , which I believed was the mother of all treks and the  preserve of the Hardcore trekkers . Clearly I was wrong.  We were also informed by the Hotel owner that a group had just returned from Hemis after staying there for 10 days without seeing the Snow Leopard. Very encouraging indeed, but we converted this as a positive by saying that at least the law of averages was on our side !

We were met by Jigmet , who had made the arrangements and reviewed our sleeping bags and other items for our preparedness . Jigmet was supposed to be our main guide/tracker , but a bereavement forced him to cancel his trip and in his place another youngster Tamchos was going to lead us. Stanzin and Nuno were going to be our helpers ,carrying our cameras for us and helping Tamchos in the snow leopard , Nuno , my helper was going on his first trek and was a cuddly, adorable 16 year old who showed maturity way beyond his years . Stanzin  turned out to be the comedian of the group who always kept our spirits up with his funny expressions and quips for the next ten days .  Apart from these three , we had two cooks . Malik and Jeppo and one other helper for them . The average age of our retinue must have been twenty or so and suddenly I found myself to be by far the oldest member of the group !

Come second of February , and we were driven in an Innova for a hour and a half till we reached the Village of ZinChen , where the Mules and our retinue was waiting for us .  More than half a dozen Mules were loaded with all our camping requirements and supplies  and we started our short one hour trek , through frozen streams and rocky paths to  the Husing Valley ,  our campsite .

The campsite was  located in the valley on a relatively flat area that was surrounded by imposing mountain ridges , the domain of the nine odd snow leopards in the area .  There were already a few groups staying there and we got talking to them  . We were informed by an elderly Danish couple who had been staying there for more than ten days that they had not seen anything yet but they planned to stay on for two more weeks !! Talk of commitment .  Seeing people like these certainly inspired us .  And then there was this Swedish photographer/writer Jon, who was writing a book on Snow Leopards and was collecting material for it .  All in all , most people at the campsite seemed to be people who were above 60 who had the Snow Leopard on their bucket list like Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson !!

This campsite was going to be our home for the next ten days .  Varun and I shared a tent that had just enough space for our sleeping bags plus the essential items and my camera bag . I mentally prepared myself to be in the same set of clothes for the next ten days and to take on all that the environment would throw at me.

The cooking and food on offer was something of a revelation and was far beyond anything we had ever imagined .  Breakfast was cereal with hot milk, Hot Porridge with nuts, Eggs and toast or Eggs and pancakes .  Lunch was anything from Maggie to Dal Chawal to Pasta to Poori Channa . Dinner was a full four course meal with soup and Sweet Dish or Swedish as we came to call it ! On the last day , they even baked a Pizza and a cake to celebrate .  The resourcefulness of the Laddakhis under such trying conditions  never ceased to amaze us . Hot cups of Garam Paani, Chaai or Namkeen Chai was always at hand to hydrate us.  Our Dining tent had an LPG heater and was our refuge in the evenings and early mornings from the Mind numbing cold .

The gastronomical requirements taken care of rather nicely, we just had to manage the cold and altitude to survive. Which was easier said than done.   Much as the sleeping bags were amazing in the coziness quotient , there always was a gap somewhere near the top through which the cold really bit you.  One’s bladder seemed to shrink to half its capacity , necessitating going out for a pee on most nights  in the in the mind numbing -25 degrees temperature .  Numbing ones mind and just do it  seemed to be the formula . Unzip sleeping bag  , struggle to to sit up,  put on the miners light on the head , open tent zip,  struggle into a frozen pair of shoes ,  stagger out , pee,  rush back, get out of the shoes,  zip up tent,  struggle back into sleeping bag, zip up , put away miners light , shiver for five minutes , try and go back to sleep.  Early mornings , when it was time to get up were the worst with one wondering what the heck one was doing here instead of being in bed back home waking up to hot filter coffee . But once one got out of the tent and the first cup of Chai went in ,  the environment and its positive energy literally possessed one  and then it was a case of  looking forward to the day ahead with great anticipation .

The daily routine consisted of the trackers looking for tell tale signs of the Lamba Dhum from pug marks and other signals .  Each group had its own Tracker and some of the them like Smanla and Jigmet Dadul were very senior experienced trackers accompanying other groups . Once they determined the area where they thought the chances of spotting the leopard was high,  we had to get ready and a short but lung bursting trek of  anything between 30 and 90 minutes would take us atop one of the ridges where we would set up our cameras and wait .  Some of these climbs were so steep and on such uneven terrain that I rediscovered my fear of heights that I had successfully shed years ago.  On day two , I remember in the afternoon the ridge I had to get on to involved such a scramble on my part I almost went into a panic .  On the way down , I didn’t hesitate to ask for little Nuno’s help to negotiate the climb down.  The others in the group did not seem to have any problems , making me take refuge under the fact that I was the oldest member of the group . I donned the Thatha avatar for the first time !!

Essentially tracking involves peering through a pair of Binoculars or Spotting scope for hours , systematically scanning the ridges and mountain tops for signs of movement of any species.  Just looking into one of these for more that 10 minutes made one dizzy and therefore the respect for what these people did just so that we could see the mystical creature went up several notches .   In the process of scanning they came across other species like blue sheep , snow cocks , golden eagles, lamergiers etc that we got a chance to spot and photograph when we were on the ridge . Otherwise just standing on the Ridge was what Varun described as plain masochism  , especially when there was a wind blowing. Tamchos and the other guides helpfully suggested that we sit on the leeward side of the ridge , which would offer protection against the bone chilling wind . This involved some tricky maneuvers and positioning oneself  appropriately

The First Sighting :

As it turned out all our sightings happened on days when were at the camp only . On day 4 (5th February) , post breakfast, we were just getting ready to go atop some ridge when an excited chatter broke out at the camp and there was a flurry of activity . The previous night , it had  snowed  and someone had spotted the Lamba Dhum on a ridge .  The level of cooperation among the guides and trackers was truly amazing as all the campers gathered at a place close to the toilet that offered a perfect view of the ridge where the Leopard was spotted .  All the guides helped everyone with any equipment /camera to focus on the creature. And after Stanzin focussed my camera , I peered through the eye piece of my camera and my 500 mm lens and there he was … A majestic silhouette against the totally overcast skyline , slowly walking , at times pausing as if to look at us. The excitement in the group was palpable .  Apart from the spectacle of seeing the Mystical creature walking on the ridge , the sheer joy and emotion of the group at that moment will stay with me forever . The Danish couple who had been camping for more that two weeks hugged each other and cried . It was fascinating to see the kind of emotions just the sighting of this creature evoked .  The guides were as excited too at sighting it after ever so long .  For us , it was a huge moment and one of relief as the pleasure of seeing it also released the pressure of having to see it !   We furiously clicked whenever we had the leopard  in good view.  In this case having the camera and telephoto lens was the only way we  could spot it .  After a while , the leopard  started walking down the mountain which prompted the group make a mad dash across  the frozen river and rocky path down to the Tarbung Valley ,  about a kilometer away. One person , carrying a  heavy camera, slipped and fell on the ice but such was the momentum of the moment , he picked himself up and ran again .  As it turned out , we got close to the valley but never managed to see the leopard again . The show  for the day was clearly over .

The next sighting happened two days later (day 6)  again around the same time under similar circumstances . This time too , the sighting happened after it snowed and this time all of us were gathered on a ridge close to the camp .  Apparently there were tow of them and the guides said they were a mating pair. But we could spot only the male which was on the ridge against the skyline .  The third sighting was a brief on on the evening of Day 7 . In the morning all of us had gathered at Tarbung Valley to hopefully see the mating pair but did not succeed in doing so . Post returning camp , Varun and I had gone on an evening walk along the frozen river towards Rumbak Valley . We had been walking for a while when Little Nuno came shouting “Paaji ..Paaji ” Shaan ” . Again it was a mad lung popping dash up some ridge . Shiva had organized for my camera bag to be brought to the ridge and when I went there , panting like a dog, I found my camera was already set up on the tripod !!  Talk of teamwork !!  This sighting was very brief as he disappeared behind a rock as it appeared he was stalking a blue sheep.  We waited greedily for him to emerge with the Kill , but without success .

By now , we were clear of one thing . That Shiva’s objective of a tack sharp , whisker countable  photo of the Snow Leopard  would be a  nothing but a miracle  If it happened .  This lessened the enthusiasm that we carried for the first seven days and we started counting down to the next three days . Also we lessened our obsession with the Snow leopards and started seriously chasing the other species near the camp like the Robins , Chukar Partridges and Magpies , in an effort to get good photographs of them  .   Stanzin maneuvered  my tripod and camera deftly on the frozen river and set up a nice shot for me of the Chukar Partridge crossing the  frozen river .  I also tried my hand at photographing the camp at night as much as my frozen fingers would permit at -25 degrees !

On day 8 we took a trek to the Rumbak Valley , which took a couple of hours and was truly breathtaking as we crossed frozen waterfalls and snowy valleys and peaks .  Our cameras were truly busy as we desperately tried to capture at least a fraction of the beauty we encountered .

Day 9  was one more more miserably cold day on the Tarbung valley ridge , when we didn’t spot anything at all, we spent out last night at Husing valley and we were treated to s special dinner by our team that consisted of Pizza and a cake , among other things .  Both these items tasted delicious leaving us marveling at the resourcefulness of the people who took care of us  .  The last night in the tent was my best as I slept like a baby in spite of the bitter cold in the secure knowledge that we would be in the comfort of warmer climes soon and that our eventful trip was about to end .

In high spirits on the 11th morning , we had finished breakfast and were packed and about to leave for Leh we for our parting gift in the form of a fourth sighting and our best . This happened exacty at the same place where we had the second sighting and we saw the magnificent male in perfect morning light against the snow ridge and blue skies .  It was as if we were being rewarded with his benevolence for being patient and good for the past ten days .  After an hour of good viewing , he finally disappeared behind the rocks and it was time for us to make the trek back to Zinchen , which we did with a song in our heart and a spring in  our step.

Indus River close to Leh

Getting into Leh brought the enormous comfort  of  a heated room , hot water bucket bath , changing into clean clothes ,  wishing Gita on her Birthday and give her the good news and  just share stories with other guests .   The sense of accomplishment and a certain high was something I would soak in as long as I could hang on to it .

This was certainly one unique wildlife trip.