Chasing the Phantom: In Pursuit of Myth and Meaning in the Realm of the Snow Leopard (UBC 2014) is Eduard Fischer's account of his travels in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh which he first visited in 1985. As he repeatedly returned to Ladakh in an effort to glimpse the elusive snow leopard--which became his quarry, nemesis and obsession--Fischer found instead a growing appreciation of Ladakh, one of the oldest enclaves of Buddhism. This new title is not to be confused with Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, a bestselling account of two months in Nepal in 1973 when Matthiessen detoured from an expedition to study Himalayan Blue Sheep. There are currently only several thousand snow leopards on the planet, mainly in the Himalayas. Eduard Fischer of West Vancouver is a Vienna-born mountaineer, writer and photographer who founded the Edge Climbing Centre in North Vancouver.

BOOKS:

Chasing the Phantom (UBC Press 2014) $15.95 978-1-8481-9172-3

[BCBW 2014]