Ghostly Photos Show Snow Leopard on Mount Everest’s Forbidden Phantom Alley

Photographer Kittiya Pawlowski has captured breathtaking images of one of the world’s most elusive predators: the snow leopard. After backpacking for 300 miles through the Himalayas on foot, Pawlowski finally found what she was looking for.

“It was exhausting,” Pawlowski told Newsweek. “Like climbing a stair stepper for eight hours a day with a pillow over your face.

“The tail end of the monsoon season lashed with bad weather and poor visibility. Up, down, hot, cold, wet, sunburnt, exhausted, exhilarated; this was the daily routine as I cut across the pattern of rivers that drain the Himalayas into the Ganges.”

Kittiya’s photo of the snow leopard, one of the most elusive predators in the world. Kittiya Pawlowski

Pawlowski began her search in the Annapurna Conservation Area in Nepal, where she first saw the animal’s tracks. “From Lukla, I walked into the upper valleys of Sagarmatha National Park.

“Every day I would scope out the valleys with my telephoto lens for movement. I was extremely excited when I finally saw movement after that many days of walking.”

The morning of the encounter, Pawlowski nearly did not leave her tent: “My oxygen dropped to 64 and I had a terrible headache at 17,000ft. I was going to sleep in; however, I decided to push myself and keep searching.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has classed snow leopards as being vulnerable to extinction, with only 2,700 to 3,400 mature individuals left in the wild. The so-called ghost cat lives in the snowy mountains of central Asia, from southern Russia down to northern India.

Both climate change and human expansion are causing the snow leopard’s habitat to shrink. Their population is also vulnerable to poaching and the illegal trade of animal skins and body parts.

Photo of the elusive snow leopard stalking through the Himalayan mountains. Kittiya Pawlowski

“Snow leopards have been my favorite animal since I was a child,” Pawlowski said. “After watching a documentary on Everest several years ago I decided to actually try to photograph these “ghost” cats.

“I used a Nikon D850 and AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/4E FL ED VR Lens to scope out the valleys every day for movement until I finally spotted a snow leopard outside of Gorak Shep.”

Gorak Shep is a small settlement on the edge of a frozen lake bed near Mount Everest which looks on to a field of ice pinnacles nicknamed Phantom Alley.

Pawlowski has been experimenting with photography since she was 3-years-old and uses her art to capture the beauty of nature.

“I hope my work inspires people to explore and take care of the Earth,” she said.

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