The Ghost of the Mountains

Unraveling the Secrets of the Snow Leopard

By: Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi

“Thrilling and intrepid. A beautiful tale of dramatic, wild landscapes and the entangled lives of snow leopards, their prey, and the humans who share their terrain.” —Andrea Wulf, bestselling author of The Invention of Nature

The vivid account of a world-leading conservationist’s efforts to find, study, and protect snow leopards, revealing the challenges facing a beautiful, fragile world in the midst of a major transition

Snow leopards have a special grip on the human imagination, a symbol of the mysteries that still exist on our planet. These elusive predators live solitary lives in the highest reaches of the Himalaya, moving along rock faces like smoke. They are also the flagship species of Himalayan conservation, key to the efforts to preserve this austere, delicate ecosystem.

Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi (or Kullu, as he is widely known) is one of the world’s leading snow leopard scientists. In The Ghost of the Mountains he offers an evocative and personal account of his decades of work in this field, from his exhilarating adventures on the high peaks to his efforts to build a community-based, collaborative model for protecting the snow leopards and their remaining habitat. That habitat is increasingly under threat as encroaching development, ongoing armed conflict, and rapidly intensifying climate change transform this region.

Thrilling, illuminating, and filled with transporting storytelling, this is an important work from a gifted new voice. Kullu brings deep scientific and cultural knowledge to his depiction of this idyllic, remote region. As he describes his work as a conservationist in a rapidly changing world, he conveys an infectious sense of wonder. For Kullu, every snow leopard encounter is still a transcendent experience, offering a renewed sense of meaning and purpose.

Critic reviews

“Thrilling and intrepid. A beautiful tale of dramatic, wild landscapes and the entangled lives of snow leopards, their prey, and the humans who share their terrain.” —Andrea Wulf, bestselling author of The Invention of Nature

“Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi has spent his adult life studying, following, and trying to protect snow leopards. The Ghost of the Mountains takes readers into the field, high in the Himalayas. The story it tells is by turns beautiful, terrible, and encouraging.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction