Teh One Who Knocks
02-01-2016, 12:24 PM
By Fiona Macrae Science Editor For The Daily Mail
http://i.imgur.com/JXH0WwB.jpg
For decades, it has remained abominably elusive.
But now it seems the game could finally be up for the yeti after a mountaineer claimed to be on its trail.
Steve Berry believes the footprints in this photo, taken in the depths of the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, were left by the legendary beast.
They are bigger than human footprints – and, in any case, were left on a mountainside so far untouched by man.
Placed in a single line, one in front of the other, Mr Berry insists they couldn’t have been made by a snow leopard, or any other four-legged creature.
While a bear can walk on two legs, its sheer bulk would make it impossible for it place its paws so precisely.
Instead, he believes they were left by a gorilla-like animal as it carefully picked its way across the steep, snow-covered slope.
The tracks were spotted on Gangkhar Puensum, the world’s highest unclimbed mountain, when Mr Berry’s Bhutanese guide spotted them 200 yards away across an impassable chasm in October 2014.
Mr Berry, 66, who lives near Badminton in South Gloucestershire, said: ‘The local people said we were the first to ever set foot on that pass.
‘I had always thought that stories about the yeti were a bit of old bunkum. But there is no denying these tracks existed.
‘The prints were clearly visible with the naked eye from where we were standing on a pass at 17,800ft.
‘There was a vertical drop in front of us, not to mention a very serious mountainside to cross, so we could not get to them.’
http://i.imgur.com/IVWtPD3.jpg
It was another four days before Mr Berry reached human habitation and was able to share news of his find.
There a yak herder told him he had seen the yeti, or migo as it is known in Bhutan, once, some 11 years earlier.
Mr Berry said: ‘He said it was about 100 yards from him and standing upright facing him and looked straight at him.
‘It was completely covered in long dun brown-coloured hair and a face covered in hair like a cat or dog but of human height.
http://i.imgur.com/2YteHEN.jpg
‘Then, he said, “You can recognise migo tracks because they put one foot directly in front of the other” and I nearly fell over.
‘I showed him the pictures from my camera and he said, “Yes, these are migo tracks”.’
Mr Berry's company specialises in Himalayan treks, so no doubt an appearance by the abominable snowman would be good for business.
However, while Mr Berry, his guide and even the Bhutanese royal family – who take a keen interest in the creature – are convinced, others are more sceptical.
The explorer, whose photographs will feature in a Channel 4 documentary later this year, admits that the fact that his company Mountain Kingdoms specialises in trips to the Himalayas will lead to scepticism about his claims.
Jon Downes, director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, said the slope is so steep that only an animal like a mountain goat would have been able to negotiate it.
He said: ‘I think that the chances of these prints being from anything more interesting are negligible and it is certainly not a bipedal higher primate.
‘The centre of gravity for such an animal would mean it just wouldn’t be able to venture up a mountain like that.’
The yeti has fascinated the western world since 1921, when a Royal Geographical Society expedition found footprints made by ‘a wild man of the snows’ – leading to the nickname ‘abominable snowman’.
Since then, the creature, whose size, shape and name varies from part to part of the Himalayas, has steadfastly resisted detection despite numerous attempts to find it.
Perhaps the most thorough of them all was the Daily Mail ‘Abominable Snowman Expedition’ of 1954, in which scientists and mountaineers scoured the Himalayas for months.
http://i.imgur.com/JXH0WwB.jpg
For decades, it has remained abominably elusive.
But now it seems the game could finally be up for the yeti after a mountaineer claimed to be on its trail.
Steve Berry believes the footprints in this photo, taken in the depths of the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, were left by the legendary beast.
They are bigger than human footprints – and, in any case, were left on a mountainside so far untouched by man.
Placed in a single line, one in front of the other, Mr Berry insists they couldn’t have been made by a snow leopard, or any other four-legged creature.
While a bear can walk on two legs, its sheer bulk would make it impossible for it place its paws so precisely.
Instead, he believes they were left by a gorilla-like animal as it carefully picked its way across the steep, snow-covered slope.
The tracks were spotted on Gangkhar Puensum, the world’s highest unclimbed mountain, when Mr Berry’s Bhutanese guide spotted them 200 yards away across an impassable chasm in October 2014.
Mr Berry, 66, who lives near Badminton in South Gloucestershire, said: ‘The local people said we were the first to ever set foot on that pass.
‘I had always thought that stories about the yeti were a bit of old bunkum. But there is no denying these tracks existed.
‘The prints were clearly visible with the naked eye from where we were standing on a pass at 17,800ft.
‘There was a vertical drop in front of us, not to mention a very serious mountainside to cross, so we could not get to them.’
http://i.imgur.com/IVWtPD3.jpg
It was another four days before Mr Berry reached human habitation and was able to share news of his find.
There a yak herder told him he had seen the yeti, or migo as it is known in Bhutan, once, some 11 years earlier.
Mr Berry said: ‘He said it was about 100 yards from him and standing upright facing him and looked straight at him.
‘It was completely covered in long dun brown-coloured hair and a face covered in hair like a cat or dog but of human height.
http://i.imgur.com/2YteHEN.jpg
‘Then, he said, “You can recognise migo tracks because they put one foot directly in front of the other” and I nearly fell over.
‘I showed him the pictures from my camera and he said, “Yes, these are migo tracks”.’
Mr Berry's company specialises in Himalayan treks, so no doubt an appearance by the abominable snowman would be good for business.
However, while Mr Berry, his guide and even the Bhutanese royal family – who take a keen interest in the creature – are convinced, others are more sceptical.
The explorer, whose photographs will feature in a Channel 4 documentary later this year, admits that the fact that his company Mountain Kingdoms specialises in trips to the Himalayas will lead to scepticism about his claims.
Jon Downes, director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, said the slope is so steep that only an animal like a mountain goat would have been able to negotiate it.
He said: ‘I think that the chances of these prints being from anything more interesting are negligible and it is certainly not a bipedal higher primate.
‘The centre of gravity for such an animal would mean it just wouldn’t be able to venture up a mountain like that.’
The yeti has fascinated the western world since 1921, when a Royal Geographical Society expedition found footprints made by ‘a wild man of the snows’ – leading to the nickname ‘abominable snowman’.
Since then, the creature, whose size, shape and name varies from part to part of the Himalayas, has steadfastly resisted detection despite numerous attempts to find it.
Perhaps the most thorough of them all was the Daily Mail ‘Abominable Snowman Expedition’ of 1954, in which scientists and mountaineers scoured the Himalayas for months.