Lungmar Remote Camp

The Lungmar, red valley in Ladakhi, is a winter-only camp in the Ladakh Range, set at around 3,700 metres in the middle of 25,000 hectares of snow leopard habitat, past the last shepherding hamlets and Buddhist monasteries. There are twelve rooms in total: six Predator Suites on the upper floor of the Sumdo Sarai, a stone, earth and timber building at the meeting of three valleys, and six Kurkhang tents of hand-stitched canvas over layers of insulation, with a heated stone hammam for bathing. Outside, temperatures drop to minus twenty; inside there are hand-knotted rugs, wood-framed beds and Silk Road brocades.

Days are spent out with the camp's trackers, who have two decades of snow leopard fieldwork behind them and Swarovski optics to hand, scanning ridge lines for the grey ghost and for urial, blue sheep, ibex and wolf along the way. Evenings mean espresso, a small library and Silk Road cooking in the Sumdo Sarai. The camp runs November to April, with a seven-night minimum stay.