Yeti

The **Yeti** is a folkloric ape-like creature taller than an average human, that is said to inhabit the Himalayan mountains. The names Yeti and Meh-Teh are commonly used by the people indigenous to the region, and are part of their history and mythology.

## Appearance

In Buddhist mythology, the Yetis were peaceful creatures, that were very shy, and lived in dense snow caves on the glaciers which form the Ganges River in India. In modern times, most sightings and evidence are on K2. The name Yeti derives from "Yeh-Tah", meaning "rock thing".

The Yeti was even mentioned in pre-Buddhist cultures, such as the Lecha people, who worshiped a "Glacier Giant." Tibetan and Nepalese monasteries have collected several skulls and bones of the yetis, some of which reside in the Smithsonian Museum today. Although one of their specimens was proven to be a human bone, others stored in the museum are still in question.

Yetis according to Twenty-First Century sightings are said to stand from 8 to 10.5 feet tall, have a furry coat of brown, reddish or black hair and to resemble a huge, upright walking ape. Contrary to popular misconception the yeti is not white. The photograph in the gallery below said to be a 'white coated yeti' is in fact a picture of 'Snowflake' the albino gorilla that once lived at Barcelona Zoo. There have been no reports of white yeti in reality. Several expeditions have taken place to find the Yetis, however, only footprints, bones, and hair samples have been discovered.

### 1953

Sir Edmund Hillary was one of the first two men to climb the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest. He climbed the 29,035 ft (8,850m) peak with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, reaching the top on May 29, 1953.

Born July 20, 1919, in Auckland, New Zealand, Sir Edmund Hillary began climbing mountains in his native country as a teenager and earned renown as an ice climber. He served as a pilot during World War II and as New Zealand’s ambassador to India in the 1980s. Within cryptozoology however, Sir Edmund Hillary will be remembered first as a man who hunted the Yeti.

In the 1950s, curiosity about the identity of the “Abominable Snowman” drew Edmund Hillary into the search. Stories of hairy man-like creatures were known. Footprints in the snow and in mud were found to indicate some such cryptids were active in out of the way places in Nepal, Tibet, and the surrounding region. In 1952, Hillary along with George Lowe found hair on a high pass while in the mountains, relating it to the Yeti.

In 1953, Yeti tracks were found by Hillary in the Barun Khola range. The next year, two British members of Hillary’s team discovered Yeti tracks in the Choyang Valley. His trusted Sherpa friends would tell Hillary of their firsthand sightings of the man-sized Yeti.

The Sherpas in Nepal know of several types of “Abominable Snowmen” in the mountains of Asia. When Hillary went to the Himalayas to look for the Yeti, he and his collaborator, journalist Desmond Doig, noted that there were several unknown primates, still undiscovered in any formal way, that were said to be there.

Among the varieties was one called the “Nyalmo.” Hillary and Doig learned of the Nyalmo in north-central Nepal. It was said to be “giant-sized (up to twenty feet tall), manlike, hairy, and given to shaking giant pine trees in trials of strength while other Nyalmos sit around and clap their hands.” During most of the 1950s, Hillary was a supporter of the possibility of the existence of the Yeti.

Late in 1960, Sir Edmund Hillary, sponsored by the World Book encyclopedia company of Chicago, left on his famous expedition to Nepal in pursuit of the “Abominable Snowman.” Hillary died at the age of 88, on January 11, 2008.