Nexus - 0406 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

THE TWILIGHT ZONE ABOMINABLE SIGHTINGS he yeti, the so-called "Abominable Snowman" of the Himalayas, has been dismissed by most scientists as a creature born of myth and imagination, but what if it really exists? Italian mountain climber Reinhold Messner claims to have encountered the yeti four times—once close enough to touch it. He says he had his first glimpse of a yeti in 1986 in eastern Tibet after tracking its 16-inch-wide footprints. Ten years later, in June last year, he bought a skeleton from nomads on a 6,000-foot plain in Ladakh, between India and Pakistan, and began searching the area in earnest. "I searched for a week, 12 hours a day, in an area with no trees," he says. "I didn’t expect to find one so soon. First we saw a mother with her child. I could only take a photograph from the back. The child had bright red fur; the older animal's fur was black. She was over two metres tall, with dark hair, just like the legend. When they saw us, they disappeared." Messner claims to have taken a photo- graph of the mother yeti tending her child, but just two days after that sighting, Messner and his companions came across a sleeping yeti. They managed to creep to within 20 yards of the creature so they could video and photograph it. They stood there gazing at it for three minutes. "Then he woke and saw us. He looked at us like a small child who has just met someone for the first time. We stood eye to eye—I could have touched him. Then he stood up and slowly walked away." Messner describes adult yetis as about six foot six inches tall. He says yetis com- municate with their kind by whistling. Shy creatures, they tend to come out at night to feed and are thought to be carnivorous. He estimates there may be a thousand yetis in the Himalayas, well hidden in dense forest. These are extraordinary claims, but then Messner is a legend amongst moun- taineers. Now aged 52, he was the first man to climb Mt Everest alone, without oxygen, and reportedly is the only man to have climbed the world's 14 highest moun- tains. His skills have taken him to places few others have reached, including some of the most isolated valleys of the Himalayas. However, Messner is not yet ready to show his photographic evidence. We have to wait for the book he is writing to be published, and that may take another two nearby meadow the year before and had years. If Messner can release his videos _ been scared away by the noise from conch- and photos, this would be the first solid shell horns. evidence of a creature that has been report- Dr Karl Schuker, a British zoologist and ed every decade or so for 150 years but __yeti researcher, said there could be some which is still generally ascribed to legend. truth to Messner's claims. Certainly the Sherpas of the region "There have been yeti sightings over a around Mt Everest firmly believe in the _1,400-mile range of the Himalayas from existence of the yeti, but, despite reports of | Pakistan through India to Tibet and even tracks and occasional sightings, hard evi- — Burma," he says. dence is extremely difficult to come by. "They divide into three types: the 'origi- Rumours of the yeti began to circulate in _nal' yeti is red; there is a taller giant black the West from 1832, when the first species; and there have been a few sight- Englishman to live in Nepal heard of a ings of a smaller, red sub-species." creature which moved with an erect gait "Messner's sightings have thrown new and was covered in long, dark hair. light on those classifications. The red It has other local names: metohkangmi, species may be simply a younger yeti mirka, sogpa, mlgo. The first means _ which acquires black hair as it grows." "filthy snowman", but a mistranslation by It might be very bad luck for the yeti if a journalist covering the 1921 expedition its existence were absolutely confirmed at to Everest gave it the name that ever since last. In time, no doubt one will be cap- has stuck to the unfortunate creature, tured but it would be unlikely to survive though it is generally supposed to be gentle for long away from the thin air and great and shy rather than abominable. altitude of the mountains. In that year, 32 witnesses (six British However, confirmation of the yeti would climbers and 26 Sherpas) saw tracks _ be of immense scientific importance, and ascribed to the yeti, although bears, goats would cast new light on sightings of its or snow leopards were other explanations. cousins such as Australia's yowie and Tracks have been seen and pho- North America's Bigfoot or Sasquatch. tographed in the valleys closest to Everest, (Source: Julian Champkin, Daily Mail most notably by Eric Shipton, leader of the [UK], 16 August 1997) British recon- naissance expedition to Everest in 1951—but many of Shipton's friends thought _ his reputation as a practical joker threw some doubt on those photos. While lead- ing the expedi- tion that con- quered Everest in 1953, Sir John Hunt was told by the chief lama of the monastery where he was camping that a yeti had played in the snow in a nearby meadow the year before and had been scared away by the noise from conch- shell horns. Dr Karl Schuker, a British zoologist and yeti researcher, said there could be some truth to Messner's claims. "There have been yeti sightings over a 1,400-mile range of the Himalayas from Pakistan through India to Tibet and even Burma," he says. "They divide into three types: the 'origi- nal' yeti is red; there is a taller giant black species; and there have been a few sight- ings of a smaller, red sub-species." "Messner's sightings have thrown new light on those classifications. The red species may be simply a younger yeti which acquires black hair as it grows." It might be very bad luck for the yeti if its existence were absolutely confirmed at last. In time, no doubt one will be cap- tured but it would be unlikely to survive for long away from the thin air and great altitude of the mountains. However, confirmation of the yeti would be of immense scientific importance, and would cast new light on sightings of its cousins such as Australia's yowie and North America's Bigfoot or Sasquatch. (Source: Julian Champkin, Daily Mail [UK], 16 August 1997) NEXUS - 63 OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1997