The Snow Leopard

Go with Peter Matthiessen all the way to Dolpo, a Tibetan plateau in the high Himalayas.

This is the account of a journey to the dazzling Tibetan plateau of Dolpo in the high Himalayas. In 1973 Matthiessen made the 250-mile trek to Dolpo, as part of an expedition to study wild blue sheep. It was an arduous, sometimes dangerous, physical endeavour: exertion, blisters, blizzards, endless negotiations with sherpas, quaking cold. But it was also a 'journey of the heart' - amongst the beauty and indifference of the mountains Matthiessen was searching for solace. He was also searching for a glimpse of a snow leopard, a creature so rarely spotted as to be almost mythical.

— from Penguin Books

Life is a never-ending series of questions; reading this book is a process of learning and accepting that perhaps not everything has to have an answer.

[Curator's note: This was first published in 1978 and has been on several "best travel books" lists. Bringing this gem back to light which may have been dusted away as time passed.]

— Wee Pin, P&D