Peter Matthiessen describes his heroine journey through the Himalayas in a way that has the reader lost in the mountains. The Snow Leopard tells the tale of a long trek that brought Matthiessen closer to frostbite and exhaustion than a normal person would care to go. But in doing so, Matthiessen describes how this journey brought him closer to himself, and uses local philosophy of Buddhism and history to explain the mountain's serenity.