The September 1986 issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine carried the story. Said the magazine:
When, in early March of this year, Tony Wooldridge first saw fresh animal tracks on the slopes of the snow on either side of him, the thought of a yeti did briefly cross his mind, but only as a funny idea. He was, of course, in the same general part of the western Himalayas where, in 1937, H W Tilman followed a set of large ape-like footprints for more than a mile, and where, in 1976, Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker emerged from their tent on a morning after a night disturbed by unidentifiable low growls to discover that, whatever the thing was that had kept them awake, it had apparently— and this may have been what the growling was about—scoffed 36 Mars bars complete with wrappers before wandering off ahead of a wake of tracks very much like the ones Tilman had found.
The 1986 photo by Anthony Wooldridge of the “yeti” seen in lower right.
Other mountaineers had also had food go missing in this neighborhood, and Wooldridge, who was the first person to have passed through this valley since the autumn snows, was vaguely aware of such stories. Nevertheless, if there is anything that always happens to someone else, it is an encounter with a legendary animal, and after a quick smile at the yeti idea, Wooldridge forgot it. There are lots of interesting sights to be seen in these mountains, and the last thing you need to do up here, especially if you are alone, is to fantasize.
Unlike most Westerners who come to the Himalayas, Wooldridge was not a trekker, a tourist or a climber. He was there as a charity fund-raiser. In ordinary life he is a physicist who does research and development for the CEGB in Manchester [UK], and he has been on walking and climbing trips to the Alps and the Andes, but on this occasion he was on a 200-mile sponsored solo run for an organization called Traidcraft, which promotes trade, intermediate technology and fair pay and conditions in Third World countries, including India. He was staying mainly in the 1,800 m. high town of Joshimath, north-east of Delhi and not far from the Tibetan and Nepalese borders, and was ranging out from there in different directions through the high valleys, over a day or two days or three days. Each day he would set himself a goal and try to run to it in time to run back either to Joshimath or to another, outlying base before nightfall.
Close-up of the “veti” in Wooldridse’s 1986 photo.
It was eleven o’clock on the morning of the fifth day out when he saw the footprints. He had run from Govind Ghat, a village north of Joshimath, to a couple of empty bungalows known as Gangaria and was now trying to reach the closed end of the highest valley he’d gone through so far, about 4,000 metres.
At 3,300 metres he saw the footprints and was struck by their clarity, smiled at the idea of a yeti and then wondered what really might have left them. “I thought it was probably some sort of large langur monkey, because there were a lot of them about, lower down. Between Govind Ghat and Gangaria there were a lot of colonies of them. And I do remember reassuring myself that it didn’t look like a big cat... snow leopards are the only thing I had been told were in the area.”
... Then, a little farther on—it was about noon by now—he heard a crash and what he describes as a long rumbling. “My first reaction was that’s an awful avalanche somewhere. And then I thought, no it can’t be because nowhere around could I see any sign of any snow movement. Maybe I was trying to rationalize it to myself. I don’t know. I put it down to soldiers in the valley dynamiting for roads.” He pressed on up the slope, which seemed suddenly to get much steeper. It was also as the sun was shining on it, getting warmer and making Wooldridge very nervous. And then, sure enough, stretching across his path was the sweep of debris of a freshly fallen avalanche. “I think now, with hindsight, that this was the noise I heard. I went across the next 50 yards or so to get to another spot where the slope evened out so I could get a good view of it and try to work out where it started, what had started it and what the risks were of something else happening.
“The thing that really caught my eye was this great big smooth slide in the snow as if some pretty heavy rock had slid down it.” But there was no rock. Where the rock should have been or where signs that the rock had bounced away should have been, there was nothing— except “tracks leading away right from the base of the snow slide across the slope behind a little shrub and beyond it. And right behind the shrub was a shape that couldn’t have been a rock.”
In an unpublished written account of the incident, Wooldridge describes this shape as “a dark, hairy creature perhaps up to two meters [six feet] in height, standing erect on two legs. It had a squarish head and long powerfully built torso.” In talking about it, he also mentions knee-length arms with brown hair on them.
Edward W. Cronin, in his book The Arun: A natural history of the world’s deepest valley, compiles all of the remarkably consistent recent eyewitness accounts of the yeti into this description: “Its body is stocky, apelike in shape with a distinctly human quality to it, in contrast to that of a bear. It stands five and a half to six feet tall and is covered with short coarse hair, reddish-brown to black in color sometimes with white patches on the chest. The hair is longest on the shoulders. The face is hairless and rather flat. The jaw is robust, the teeth are quite large, though fangs are not present and the mouth is wide. The shape of the head is conical with a pointed crown. The arms are long, reaching almost to the knees. The shoulders are heavy and hunched. There is no tail.” (BBC Wildlife Magazine, Sept. 1986)
However, Wooldridge was later to retract his statements; even though he apparently believed in the yeti, he decided that what he had photographed was probably a rock, even though he could not find that rock. After returning to the site in 1987, Wooldridge wrote a letter to the British journal Cryptozoology,105 which published excerpts in a 1987 article:
The bush in the 1986 photos was still there; the Yeti wasn’t; the snow was somewhat deeper. Wooldridge and some companions took more pictures of the site:
“Stereo pairs of photos taken in 1987 have been used to produce a three dimensional map of the terrain near the bush. When this is used to derive an absolute scale for pairs of photos from 1986, it shows that, whatever I photographed in 1986, lies below the snow level in the 1987 photos. The object is leaning slightly uphill, and no movement can be detected when comparing photos taken at different times in 1986. The apparent change in position relative to the bush in some photos taken from different camera positions is caused by parallax. This evidence demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that, what was believed to be a stationary, living creature was, in reality, a rock.”105
So, was this rare still-photo of a yeti actually of a rock? We will probably never know. It seems unlikely that someone would photograph what they thought was an animal and then decide later that it was a rock, but Wooldridge seems to have been a reluctant yeti witness from the start. The ridicule that is often heaped upon persons who claim to have encountered a yeti or sasquatch is often so intense that it becomes necessary to back down on the original claim and just let the matter be done with. Often, people just keep quiet about unsettling encounters with these frightening beings, which may well be a good idea in some cases.
stills from the “Snowwaiker video.”
One of the things we might conclude is that as high tech digital cameras with powerful zoom lenses, as well as small digital video cameras, become more and more common we will probably get more and more photos of elusive crypto-critters like the yeti.
Video footage of a yeti in Nepal was supposedly taken in 1992 by hikers. The trekkers, who are unnamed, but presumably American, were said to be high in the Himalayas of Nepal (but no specific location is given) where they took an amazing video of an apelike creature walking upright along the slopes.
This famous clip, now on Youtube.com and watched by thousands of people, has become known as the “Snow Walker Video.” The video starts out with a shaky camera trying to focus on a dark object on a steep snow covered mountainside and then, once the camera stabilizes, it briefly depicts an apelike cre
ature walking on two legs making its way through the snow. A few stills from the 51-second-long video are shown here. The entire video can be seen on the Internet at the Youtube site by doing a search for “Snow Walker Video.”
There is also a feature film named The Snow Walker that was released in 2003. It is a film about a maverick bush pilot who survives a plane crash in the remote Arctic tundra and walks back to civilization. It has nothing to do with the Youtube video of a yeti.
However, most researchers consider the entire Snow Walker matter to be a hoax, and a sophisticated one at that. According to the website encounterswithbigfoot.com, a site largely dedicated to authentic bigfoot accounts, the “Snow Walker Video” was a hoax made for a Paramount UPN television series called Paranormal Borderland. The show ran on the UPN network from March 12 to August 6, 1996. According to encounterswithbigfoot. com, the footage was then purchased by the Fox Network for a program called The World’s Greatest Hoaxes.
According to encounterswithbigfoot.com, the footage was some “of the most elaborate hoax footage ever produced.” It does seem suspicious that the provenance of the video is basically unknown. We are only told that was taken in 1992 in Nepal, but the witnesses are not given, nor any specific location within the vast nation of Nepal. The arms of the creature in the video are unusually long and seem very natural. Perhaps the footage was genuine, but acquired from persons who wished to remain anonymous for any number of reasons. The video footage and stills from the video are very intriguing. It seems to me the film must either be a clever hoax, one pulled off by Hollywood, as suggested, or some of the best footage of a yeti ever taken.
The Migoi of Bhutan
Bhutan seems to be an extremely active yeti area as well. The rugged, remote mountain kingdom contains few roads, with many steep jungle-mountain ravines and gorges. It is an ideal habitat for yetis and stories of them abound in the reclusive Buddhist kingdom, an independent country whose foreign affairs are largely conducted by India.
In the remote eastern area of Bhutan is the important town of Trashigang. Fifty miles east of Trashigang is the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, an official sanctuary for the migoi, as yetis are known in Bhutan. The drive from Trashigang to Sakteng entails a rough drive over difficult mountainous terrain, where roads are frequently cut off by boulders. Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary is an unusual one as it was created to preserve the abominable snowman, probably the only national park in any nation dedicated as a preserve for what many consider a mythical animal. There are many stories and legends about the migoi in the area, and local Bhutanese people insist that there have been many sightings of yetis in this region. At Sakten the migoi is known for its phenomenal strength, magical powers (such as the ability to become invisible) and knowing how to walk backwards to fool any trackers.
The forests of Sakten have not yet been explored fully because foreigners in this region are restricted (as in general in Bhutan) and locals do not venture very far into the jungles. Situated in the easternmost part of the Kingdom, Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary was declared a protected area in 2003, making it the newest protected area in Bhutan. It sprawls across 650 sq. km., incompassing amazing biodiversity and a variety of intact Himalayan terrestrial ecosystems such as alpine meadows, temperate forests and warm broadleaf forests. Isolated nomadic tribes live in this sanctuary such as the Brokpas. These indigenous tribal people are often reticent and unwilling to interact with outsiders. Bhutan is appropriately called “the hermit kingdom.”
The isolation of the Sakteng region causes it to be teeming with rare animals such as Snow Leopards, Red Pandas, Himalayan Black Bear, Barking Deer and Himalayan Red Foxes. The Bhutanese government is slowly allowing more and more tourists into the area, many with the goal of encountering and photographing a yeti.
Kunzang Choden chronicles a number of Bhutanese yeti-migoi tales in her enjoyable book Bhutanese Tales of the Yeti.12 Choden emphasizes the strong belief in these cryptids espoused the Bhutanese people, and several types are recognized. The smaller mirgola or mechume live in the dense forests of larch, spruce, bamboo and rhododendron and are about a meter (three feet) in height. Says Choden, “On occasions they have been known to grin menacingly and make strange noises; they are said to indulge in mimicry. This aspect of their character has given rise to many tales and legends. It is generally agreed that encountering them is a bad omen, which leads to misfortune and even death in some cases.”12
Choden mentions that the migoi or migyur, the larger of the yetis of Bhutan, are so much a part of the culture and history of Bhutan that some ancient pre-Buddhist Bon rituals call for the use of the “blood of a migoi that has been killed by a sharp weapon.”12
Some of the stories in her book are similar to ones told in Nepal, though many of the tales are quite unique to Bhutan. Says Choden of the migoi:
The migoi is known by all accounts to be a very large biped; sometimes as big as “one-and-a-half yaks” or occasionally even as “big as two yaks!” It is covered in hair that ranges in color from reddish-brown to gray-black. Its limbs are ape-like and its face is generally hairless. The female has breasts that sag. They are usually encountered alone or as couples but rarely in groups. We are told that they communicate with each other by whistling and they exude an exceedingly foul odor... It is said to have a hollow back, and as children we were often threatened that if we were naughty we would be carried off in the hollow of the migoi’s back. In some parts of Bhutan it is believed that the migoi has a special charm called a dipshing, which it conceals under its right arm, and it is this charm that endows the creature with the power to become invisible or visible at will. When we were very young we used to be completely fascinated by the concept of dipshing and spent hours on end imagining all the wonderful adventures that we could have if had access to such a charm. This naturally heightened our enchantment with the migoi, the possessor of the dipshing.
...Unlike other wild creatures the migoi is apparently not afraid of fire, in fact it is often attracted to it and approaches it seeking warmth. From the stories we hear we know that the migoi live in caves and make nests to keep themselves and their young warm. They are believed to be herbivores, although they are known to kill both humans and animals when provoked or perhaps out of fear and extreme hunger. Apparently the migoi manifests a peculiar eating habit in that it grasps its food in its hands and eats only what protrudes on either side of its fists; the food in its fist is then discarded. People say that there is a wild shallot that the yeti is particularly fond of eating. One can tell that a migoi has been in the vicinity when one finds fistfuls of cast away shallots that have been eaten from both ends.
Chinese drawing of a wildman.
The migoi seem to be extremely curious about human being and perhaps it is this makes them vulnerable to human tricks and treachery, sometimes costing them their lives.
Three Bhutanese postage stamps showing migoi or yeti (male).
Choden tells 21 tales of the migoi in her book, and each has its own curious twist or surprising ending. Many seem to be old tales meant to teach about the habits of the yeti, while others seem to be stories of genuine encounters with a yeti. One familiar tale that also illustrates the copycat tendencies of yetis is of a young Bhutanese girl in a remote area of northern Bhutan who is searching for her younger brother who has not returned to their remote yak pastures at a place called Goelak. She is forced to spend the night in a cave in which a yeti happens to live.
When the yeti returns to the cave, she realizes her predicament, and while speaking in a friendly manner to the yet, she starts a fire in the cave. With the yeti watching her from the other side of the fire, she boils water in a pot and then makes the popular tsampa barley dough by mixing flour in the boiling water and allowing it to cook. Then she fills a ball of dough with yak butter and eats it. She then gives it to the yeti, who imitates her. They eat several of the buttery dough balls and then the girl takes the yak butter and rubs it on her arms and legs. The yeti does the same, soaking his
hairy body in the melted butter. Finally, she carefully holds a stick with glowing embers from the fire over her arms to warm them, and the yeti imitates this as well. Unfortunately for the yeti, his buttered arms, legs and stomach catch fire and the poor yeti bursts into flames. The last view that she has of the yeti is as a flaming apeman running in panic into the thick forest at the bottom of the hill.
Three more Bhutanese postage stamps showing migoi or yeti (female).
A similar story of yeti imitation and trickery is told in Nepal concerning the use of the large knives called kukris. When a remote village was losing yaks and other food to a group of yetis that were continually raiding the village at night, the people concocted a plan. Since yetis will imitate humans they decided to have a big party in the late afternoon and drink lots of the local barley beer known as chang. After drinking copious amount the chang, with the yetis watching them secretly from the bushes, the villagers all picked up their kukris and pretended to hack and chop at each other. They then dropped their kukris on the ground and left the large cauldron of chang outside while they retired to their huts and locked the doors and windows. Sure enough, in the morning the villagers discovered a number of dead yetis in the center of the village—they had gotten drunk on the chang and then picked up the kukris and hacked each other to death in imitation of the villagers.
The Bhutanese believe that the yeti is unable to bend its body and stoop beneath a low door. In a popular tale, two yak herders were searching for some lost yaks when they suddenly came across a migoi sleeping near a shallow ravine. They watched in fascination for a few moments and then quietly tried to get beyond the creature. Unfortunately for them, it woke up and chased them down the mountain. But the men were able to stoop beneath a massive tree that had fallen and blocked the only path in the steep area. When the yeti came to the fallen tree, he hit his head on the trunk, and was unable to pass because he could not bend over. Finally the migoi turned to go back to its territory. As the yak herders glanced back one last time, the migoi had suddenly vanished, using it dipshing talisman to become invisible.
Yeti, Sasquatch & Hairy Giants Page 10