Advertising: Tibet Snow Leopard Wildlife Expedition. September 2020

Snow Leopard from 25 metres away on the 2019 trip

In December you might have read William Boehm’s report of a 2019 trip to Tibet.

Sinjiangyuan Reserve, Tibetan Plateau: William Boehm’s account of a fabulous 2 week trip deep into Tibet with Snow Leopard, Brown (Himalayan Blue) Bear and Pallas’s Cat.

So if you were as envious as I was then good news … it is being repeated this year.

Jon

Tibetan Snow Leopard Wildlife Expedition

Dates: September 15—28, 2020

Costs: All details in this link: Tibet Snow Leopard Wildlife Expedition

Journey size: Only 6 clients

Leading this journey is veteran Himalayan guide Benjamin Cubbage. Originally from the US, Benjamin has lived 10 years full-time in Tibet and speaks Chinese language. He is also a trained Wilderness First Responder with an emphasis on High Altitude Medicine. His expert knowledge and research on Tibetan history, culture and religion has been used by BBC for their 4 part series The Mekong River. He will be giving lectures each day on different aspects of Tibetan history and culture as well as monitoring the health of each client.

Joining Benjamin is expert Tibetan wildlife guide Rinchen Tsebtrim, a native of Yushu Tibet Autonomous Region. Rinchen is fluent in English and studied eco-tourism from Columbia University in the US. He has led dozens of snow leopard expeditions the past decade. Some of his past clients include BBC, Wildlife photographer Vincent Munier and Disney. In 2016, Rinchen worked for 6 months on the snow leopard section for Disney on their Born in China documentary.

In September 2020, Himalaya Journey will lead a one-of-a-kind 2 week expedition focusing on sighting and photographing the elusive snow leopard, along with wolves, Himalayan brown bears, blue sheep, White-lipped deer, musk deer, gazelle, marmots, foxes, Pallas’s cats, lynxes, pika, as well as many birds of prey like Himalayan griffon and Bearded vultures. More than 60% of the world’s total wild snow leopard population live on the Tibetan Plateau, with many of them located in the sparsely populated Yushu Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, the area that this journey will be exploring.

This journey will begin on September 15, 2020 in the city of Xining on the far northeastern Tibetan Plateau. After a night in an international 5 star hotel in Xining, we will fly to the small city of Jyekundo, known as Yushu in Chinese, the next morning. Jyekundo is located in the heart of the Tibetan Plateau and sits at 3700 meters/12,140 feet above sea level. We will spend 3 nights in Jyekundo exploring nearby Buddhist monasteries, pilgrimage destinations and do some light hiking in the surrounding mountains while acclimating to the high altitude.

We will depart Jyekundo on September 19 and begin the journey to the Upper Mekong River Region in the region of Dzadö. This is a scenic drive thru the mountains that follows some of the Mekong River along the way. In Dzadö, elevation 4075 meters (13,370 feet), we will stay at a centrally located hotel for another night of altitude acclimatization. The next day, September 20, the real journey begins as we leave civilization behind and continue on to the high altitude wilderness of the Upper Mekong River Region.

We will set up our camp at an altitude of 4340 meters (14,240 feet) in an area that has a considerable snow leopard population. This is a little-known area so it is extremely unlikely we will come across any other people besides the occasional Tibetan nomadic herder. We will spend a week in this region viewing wildlife as well as going to the Spiritual Source of the Mekong River. The final day of the journey, September 28, will have us fly back to Xining or on to the maga-city of Chengdu. Our journey will conclude upon arrival to Xining or Chengdu.

Level of Difficulty: Moderate