The Snow Leopard

I don’t know which of the journeys in this slim volume I cherish more: the outer, which entails an arduous trek through a remote corner of the Himalaya, or the inner which involves the author’s fraught quest for a deeply Buddhist kind of inner peace.

I have carried this book on similarly long walks in the wilds of Laos and Nepal—even on the very trails that Matthiessen trod. It is one of the great companions of my life.

Peter wrote about his long trek into the Himalayas in the company of a biologist who went in search of the elusive snow leopard. I was awed by this concept, but more so, for Peter, it was a spiritual journey that memorably reflects on his own life and the recent death of his wife.

There’s such vivid beauty and inspirational honesty in his words. It evoked in me a longing for wild places with no expectations attached. 

Matthiessen shows you why extraordinary men and women risk their lives and their sanity to meet nature on its own terms, and what they stand to gain by doing so. The story of his expedition to the western Himalayas in pursuit of the elusive snow leopard is full of color and excitement, but that’s not all – the book has many levels. It’s just as much a meditation on our role as humans in the natural world, and in what makes a spiritual life, as it is an adventure. But it’s a hell of an adventure. Matthiessen is a celebrated… show more.

How far must you travel to discover your true inner self? Pretty far, for Peter Matthiessen—all the way to the slopes of Annapurna in Nepal, in search of blue sheep, the Lama of Crystal Mountain, the elusive snow leopard, and most of all, spiritual enlightenment—very big in the ’70s (trust me, I was there). It’s a journal, a travelogue, a nature study, a daredevil escapade in a setting of such unworldly grandeur that makes you long to be there, at the top of the world, where the clouds dance and the mountains sing. Lots of self-reflection, but absolutely worth signing… show more.

As a writer and naturalist, Peter Matthiessen gets you into the field and into the middle of things whether he’s writing fiction or nonfiction, whether he’s at sea, high in the mountains, or in a rainforest. His books explore the inside of his head as much as the world he encounters. With this book, he made me realize the importance of the journey, what you, the writer, and the student of nature, are feeling as you transit from your ordinary life deep into the subject of your research. As Peter Matthiessen reveals, you learn by getting out there, by doing,… show more.

We all dream of legendary creatures and undiscovered places, but PM is one who sets out to find them. His daily jottings and observations are what hold my attention: “two little girls in wool boots and bead necklaces, tarry on a corner of the trail to watch us go. . . little ragged stumps on the daybreak sky.” Along the way, he lets us in on some intimate details about his late wife Delores Love. The story of her dying from cancer and the undelivered bowl from Switzerland is almost unbearably moving. His observations are deeply insightful and stirring: “And… show more.

Writer, explorer, Zen monk, and erstwhile CIA agent Peter Matthiessen’s best work is fiction, but The Snow Leopard, an account of the author’s travels in search of the Himalayan blue sheep in 1973, remains a Nepal nonfiction classic and is a great introduction to the work of foreign writers focusing on the country. Embarking on this expedition in the wake of his wife’s death, Matthiessen weaves his personal journey into observations of the mountains with an eye on Buddhist precepts and the hope to encounter the very rare snow leopard.