An exciting trip in search of Snow Leopards in Ladakh.
Snow Leopards are one of the world's most elusive mammals but in winter they descend from the high Himalayan peaks in search of food. This beautiful, enigmatic cat inhabits some of the most remote and mountainous regions of Central Asia.
Our adventurous trip takes us into the far north western part of India, to Ladakh (or Little Tibet). Cut off from the rest of the world in winter the only way in is a spectacular flight over the Himalaya.
After a few days acclimatising to the altitude and exploring isolated monasteries, we trek into the heart of this mountainous region in search of this magnificent animal.
This trip gives us a chance to experience a blend of rare high altitude wildlife, as well as isolated Himalayan Buddhist communities. Each itinerary has been timed to visit one of the monastic masked dance festivals.
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Adventure Pioneers - This trip gets our vote!
Each year we run a competition that challenges you to design a trip for our Adventure Pioneers range. Out of the entries received we choose the most inspiring, sustainable and appealing to launch as an Exodus trip. They are pioneering. They are different. They are the very best of Exodus Travels. This trip breaks the mould and extends the boundaries of adventure travel.
What makes this trip responsible?
We ask that you use environmentally sound practices whilst in Ladakh. Please try to buy as little mineral water as possible to avoid plastic waste. Boiled drinking water is provided on trek and available in the Leh hotel. We advise all clients to bring a purification product to treat any non-boiled water. Burnable rubbish will be burnt on trek and we ask each trekker to keep a rubbish bag for non-burnable rubbish that is taken back to Delhi or UK. Please dress conservatively whilst in India and respect the local culture especially when visiting temples and taking photographs.
Ladakh project
Exodus started supporting this area in the Markha Valley in 2007, after the heavy rains in 2006 caused flooding throughout Ladakh, which destroyed many houses and caused loss of life and livelihood to many families. We rebuilt two houses and provided wire for the school in Hankar so they could build themselves a flood barrier. When Ladakh was hit by worse flash floods and mudslides in 2010, we set up a flood relief appeal to help support these communities.
Since 2011 we have been working with the Youth Association for Conservation and Development in the Hemis High Altitude National Park (YAFCAD) and a Niyamdru Dro, a French NGO, to provide the people of the Markha Valley with safe drinking water which they can sell to foreign trekkers instead of mineral water. We aim to sponsor as many water filters as possible and ask those villages without to boil water rather than selling bottled mineral water. The plan is eventually to ban the sale of plastic mineral water bottles along the popular Markha Valley trekking route.
Please see our project page for more information.
Countries visited: India
7 - 11
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Exodus images from IN SEARCH OF THE SNOW LEOPARD
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Snow leopard walking on snow
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