VIDEO: Californian Skier Chased by Snow Leopard in India

He’s not really be chased by it at all, but it looks like it for a second.  In reality, the snow leopard is just freaked out and trying to get the hell away from these guys. This guy is David, my buddy from California.

I love watching its tail twitch like an agitated house cat.

Pretty amazing that they stumbled onto a Snow Leopard, which is an endangered species.  There are only around 3,000-6,000 left in the wild.

Most people would give their left arm just to see a Snow Leopard from a ridge away through binoculars just once.  These guys skied with it.

This video is from Gulmarg, India.  Gulmarg has a gondola and a chair or two and world-class skiing.  When the gondola is closed or avy danger is high, skiers head to this treed area called Monkey Hill.  Yes, there are also monkey’s here.  You can ski with monkeys and snow leopards in Gulmarg…

SNOW LEOPARD INFO:

The snow leopard (Panthera uncia syn. Uncia uncia) is a large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species because, as of 2003, the size of the global population was estimated at 4,080–6,590 adults, of which fewer than 2,500 individuals may reproduce in the wild.^[1]

Drawing from the latest available data, the Global Snow Leopard and Eco-System Protection Program (GSLEP) uses an estimate of between 3,920 and 6,390 individuals in the wild.

Snow leopards inhabit alpine and subalpine zones at elevations from 3,000 to 4,500 m (9,800 to 14,800 ft). In the northern range countries, they also occur at lower elevations.

Taxonomically, the snow leopard was classified as Uncia uncia since the early 1930s.  Based on genotyping studies, the cat has been considered a member of the genus Panthera since 2008.  Two subspecies have been attributed, but genetic differences between the two have not been settled.” – wikipedia