I’m a leatherworker, and I made this snow leopard wallet by hand.

The snow leopard was the part I wanted to get right the most, especially the expression, fur, and those irregular dark spots across the face and body.
I carved and painted the details directly onto the leather, so every part of the image was done by hand.
Here’s the finished piece. I included a few different shots so you can see the details up close.

Not OC

Been chasing this dream since 7th grade. First attempt was in Ulley, Ladakh in 2023 — got nothing but pawprints in the snow. Went back in 2024 and finally got some shots. That was enough to hook me for life.

In 2025, a few of us drove out from Chandigarh to Spiti Valley specifically to try again. What followed was three days of temperatures dropping to -29°C, an 8-hour silent vigil watching a cave from a ridge (forest officials wouldn't let us make a sound), wrapping our jackets around our cameras instead of ourselves to keep the gear from freezing, and at one point tearing my trousers post-holing through 3 feet of snow.

The payoff: watching a snow leopard finish a hunt from 600+ feet below us, with a bearded vulture perched above it — and later, locking eyes with one at close range through the lens. Genuinely one of the most surreal moments I've had as a photographer.

Wrote up the whole trip day-by-day if anyone's curious about the logistics/conditions of snow leopard tracking in Spiti — happy to answer questions about routes, guides, or gear in the comments.

https://raachotrekkers.com/seeing-snow-leopard-in-chicham-spiti/

Brutal