India, April 12 -- Heated vests, gloves and socks. Trapper hat, puffer jacket and thermals. I had packed for the harshest winter Ladakh might spring on me in March, which is typically one of the coldest months of the year - and one of the best times to catch the ghost of the mountains, the Shaan or snow leopard, the main attraction in my journey to the top of the world. As it turned out, I could have packed lighter. "In my lifetime, I have not seen a March as warm as this," said Tsering Dolker, 62, sitting in a sunny courtyard in Leh, guiding younger colleagues as they wove a woollen rug. Dolker recently moved here from her village in Changthang, at an altitude of about 5,000 metres. There, herders graze goats and sheep who yield the world'...