WEBVTT - Season 09 Episode 11: The Grey Zone 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.080 Hello, It's Richard mcclinsmith here with a couple of announcements. 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:06.240 After the amazing success of last year's Crimewave at Sea, 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:08.799 I'm excited to announce that we'll be setting Saiale again 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:12.039 next year February eighth to the twelfth of twenty twenty seven. 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:14.239 I can't tell you enough how much I enjoyed this 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:16.959 last year, and I'll be participating fully next year with 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.120 the show. So he fancies some spooky true crime on 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:22.880 a cruise round the Bahamas, This one's for you. Go 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:26.200 to Crimewave at seed dot com for more information. Tickets 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:29.080 will go on sale on Friday, February thirteenth, so listen 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.760 out for more announcements there. Further to that, I'm also 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:34.760 hugely excited to say I'll be attending crime Con US 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.440 and UK this year. So for the US we're going 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:39.520 to be in Las Vegas twenty eight to the thirty 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.040 first of May. Go to Crimecon dot com to buy 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:45.240 ticket and use voucher code unexplained for ten percent off. 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:47.680 And in the UK we'll be in Birmingham on April 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.160 the twenty fifth and London on the third and fourth 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:52.960 of October. These are all really special events that do 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.440 a lot to put survivors of crime front and center, 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.040 and I'm really honored to be taking part for crime 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.240 Con UK. Go to Crimecon dot com UK to buy 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:05.000 tickets and again use voucher code Unexplained for ten percent off. 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:07.479 You can also find all the links on my website 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:22.479 at Unexplained podcast dot com. Forward Slash events, The small 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:26.600 room was filled with a shocked silence. The audience were 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:28.560 gathered in the back room of an inn for the 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:32.000 nineteen twenty five annual General Meeting of the Cairn Gorm 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:35.360 Club in the Scottish Highlands to listen to tales of 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:39.080 new hikes and climbs in the Cairn Gorm Mountains. But 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:41.600 they were not expecting to hear a story like this. 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:47.880 The speaker was Professor John Norman Collie, an experienced mountaineer 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:53.320 and man of science. Everyone listened intently, some open mouthed, 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:56.320 as Colligue spoke of his memories from a fateful day 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:01.440 decades earlier. While hiking on Ben mcdowey, a thick mist 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:05.840 had suddenly enveloped Collie in it. He experienced something so 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.960 terrifying that he hadn't spoken a word about it for 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:13.560 thirty five years Collie described how, after reaching the large 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.320 stone cairn that marked the mountain's summit, he was cautiously 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.919 navigating his way back down the path when the mist ascended, 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:26.320 Swirling thickly by turns, it revealed, then swallowed up the 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:31.600 dark gray, almost monsterlike shapes of rocky outcrops. With no 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:34.680 visual cues to guide him other than the thin line 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:37.959 of rocky path beneath his feet and its compass bearing, 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:43.280 Collie proceeded slowly. Taking a wrong turn could send him 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:46.440 towards one of the precipitous cliffs that flanked the peak. 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.040 The crunching of his boots on the trail was the 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:54.200 only sound to be heard. Then, Collie said, he began 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.800 to think he could hear something besides his own booted feet. 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.359 For every few steps he took, he thought that he 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.120 heard another set of feet making that crunching sound behind him, 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:10.440 almost like an eerie echo, except that someone or something 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.560 was taking only one giant stride for every three or 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:18.800 four of his own. Summoning the most rational part of 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:23.440 his scientist's mind, Collie told himself it was nonsense, he'd 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:27.359 just imagined it. But to be sure, he then stopped 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:32.520 and listened. Then he heard the sound once again, then again. 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:38.280 The timing suggested a very large stride, which paused as 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:43.440 if waiting for Collie's next move. Trying to pull himself together, 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:51.640 Professor Colly resumed walking and once more came that eerie crunch, crunch, crunch, 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:56.520 coming from behind him. This time all reasoning left the 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.960 normally rational Collie seized with terror. As he described it 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:05.000 to his audience, he started to run, staggering and stumbling 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.240 over the rocky ground as fast as he could for 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:12.800 almost five miles. He continued on, bumping and ricocheting between 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:16.160 the boulders that flanked the trail until he finally reached 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:21.320 the comparative safety of the rothy Murker's forest below. Concluding 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:25.200 his story, Professor Colly told his stunned audience to make 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.320 of it what they would. All he could say was 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.320 that there was something very strange about the top of 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:35.599 Ben mcdowey, something that had so frightened him that he 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:40.800 would never go back there again. You're listening to Unexplained 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:53.000 and I'm Richard McLean Smith today. If you go hiking 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.040 in the Scottish Highlands, you're unlikely to have the mountain 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.200 paths and peaks to yourself, even in the dead of winter. 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.680 Walking the mountains, along with winter sports like ice climbing 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:07.400 and skiing, are popular pastimes for locals and tourists alike, 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.800 but it wasn't always this way. In the late eighteen hundreds, 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.960 walking Scotland's mountains for fun was mostly a pastime for 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:20.560 a small group of wealthy and educated Victorian gentlemen, men 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:24.600 like Sir Hugh Munroe, who combined his delight in cataloging nature, 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:28.240 including his collections of butterflies and fossils, with his new 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:32.359 found hobby of ascending Scottish peaks. He drew up a 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:35.960 list of all two hundred and eighty two Scottish mountains 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.799 with an elevation of three thousand feet or more, first 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:43.200 published as Munro's Tables in the Journal of the Scottish 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:47.560 Mountaineering Club in eighteen ninety one. The list gave rise 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:51.039 to a new sport reaching the top of all of them, 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:56.200 known as Monroe bagging. Sadly, Sir Hugh never quite managed 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:59.560 to summit all two hundred and two himself, dying during 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.120 a flu epidemic at the end of World War One 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:07.560 with only three peaks left unclimbed. John Norman Collie was 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.680 born in eighteen fifty nine near the city of Manchester 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.480 in the north of England, but he had strong Scottish roots. 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:18.200 His father was from Aberdeenshire in northeast Scotland, so the 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.679 family moved back there when Collie was still a boy. 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.400 Like Monroe, Collie fell in love with the outdoors and 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:29.760 Scotland's wild, mountainous country. He would go on to become 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.680 a professor of medicine, conducting pioneering work on the use 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.120 of X ray photography, but he always found time for 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:41.960 hiking expeditions into the Scottish mountains, especially the Cullins of Sky, 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.720 where he helped establish new routes along with local mountain 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:50.040 guide John Mackenzie. In eighteen ninety five, he was part 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:53.440 of the first ever attempt on Nanga Parbat, a twenty 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:58.039 four thousand foot high peak in the Himalayas. Collie was 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:02.400 already and experienced and respect figure in Scottish mountaineering when 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.600 he went walking in the Cairngaum Mountains in eighteen ninety. 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.880 Back then, such ventures were much more of an expedition 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:14.119 than the comparatively easy day trips of today. At the time, 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.920 the Cairn Gorms were relatively remote and in some places 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:22.320 still relatively unexplored. Rail and good road links had not 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.760 yet been built. You could often be out among the 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.400 rocks and heather all day and not see another human soul. 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:34.520 The cair Gorms consists of a high plateau reaching almost 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.960 four thousand feet above sea level, pierced here and there 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:43.080 by domed summits the eroded stumps of once much grander mountains. 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:48.120 The highest of these is Ben mcdowey, at four thousand, 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:51.040 two hundred and ninety five feet above sea level. It 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.640 is the second highest peak in Britain, behind Ben Nevis, 0:07:54.760 --> 0:08:09.160 on Scotland's northwest coast. The landscape that surrounds Ben mcdowey's 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.720 summit is desolate and bolder strewn scattered here and there 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:19.480 are free standing rocky outcrops. The Arctic alpine vegetation is sparse. 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.480 It's a place where, apart from the howl of the 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.840 wind and patter of rain on the rocks, the occasional 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:30.679 calls of birds like ptarmigan, snow buntings and red grouse 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:35.680 are the only sounds. The weather can change rapidly one 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:40.439 moment benign, the next harsh. It's a landscape in which 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:45.800 clouds descend or mists rise. The visibility can fall to 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.479 just a few feet, making it easy to become disorientated 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:53.559 and lost. Had the tale that Collie told the ken 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:57.360 Gorm Club that evening in nineteen twenty five been told 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:01.080 by another man, it might not have been believed. But 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:05.040 with his status as an experienced mountaineer and rational man 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.400 of science, the story made a great impression on those 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.160 present that day and those who heard of it later. 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.880 This was not a man to imagine phantoms or likely 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:20.760 to panic on a summit. In time, the sinister being 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:25.080 was given a name m for Leah Moore in Scott's 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:29.680 Gallic in English, the Big Gray Man of Ben mcdowey, 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:35.240 or simply the gray Man, and so for over a 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:39.360 century something described as a presence or as a creature 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.000 has been said to haunt the summit and surrounding passes 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:47.680 of Ben mcdowey. The Big Gray Man has joined a 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:51.160 list of creatures, some of which have existed for centuries 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:55.000 in the legends and folk talk of mountain peoples around 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:59.600 the world, like the Yetti from the Himalayas, Bigfoot from 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.240 North of America and the y Ren or wild Man 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:08.080 of China. Welsh mythology also has its own version of 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:13.080 the being, called Brennan the Leward in English, the Gray King, 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.960 described as a silent, semi corporeal figure who hides in 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:24.080 the mountain mists, preying on unsuspecting travelers, especially children. When 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.960 Colly's account was reported in the local press, the professor 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.280 soon discovered, to his immense surprise, that he wasn't the 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.840 only one who'd been terrified on those very same slopes. 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:40.440 One letter after another arrived through his door, detailing accounts 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:44.080 from climate who had previously been too afraid or too 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:50.160 ashamed to share their experiences. Just like Collie, several confessed 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.520 as similar feelings of terror caused by a being that 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.680 they had sensed was with them on the mountain. Hugh 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.640 Welsh was hiking to the summit with his brother in 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:04.199 nineteen oh four, where throughout the day and night they 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.800 heard footsteps that sounded to them as if someone was 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:13.559 walking nearby through soaking wet gravel. Both men were utterly 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:24.240 convinced that something was stalking them. Only in a few 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:27.640 of the cases reported to John Colly did people report 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:32.400 actually seeing something. Those who did claim to glimpse a large, 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:37.200 dark shape looming towards them. Others described a very thin 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:41.719 being over ten feet tall, with long arms and broad shoulders, 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.120 either with dark skin and hair, or else an olive 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:51.200 complexion or covered with short brown hair. Occasionally some said 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:55.040 they'd seen an unusual looking footprint, but more often the 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:59.400 apparent creature seemed to stay hidden in the mist. The 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:03.080 reports dried up for a time until after the onset 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:06.760 of the Second World War, several more vivid reports of 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:11.120 the specter began to surface. From nineteen thirty nine to 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.599 nineteen forty five. Peter Densham was the leader of the 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:19.480 Cairngorms Royal Air Force Rescue Team. One day towards the 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.840 end of his service, Densham was participating in a rescue 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:26.800 exercise on Ben mcdowey. As he neared the summit, he 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:30.280 heard what he described as strange noises on the mountain side, 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.400 although at first he felt sure that they were merely 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:37.840 caused by stone shifting. Then, around dusk, as the light 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:43.560 began to fade, a dense mist closed in on his location. Suddenly, 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:48.520 Densham reported feeling a sensation of pressure increasing around its neck, 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.240 followed by another crunch in the gravel to his left. 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.760 Densham couldn't articulate what was happening in that moment. All 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:03.240 he knew was that he had to leave immediately. Overcome 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.680 by terror, he began running down the mountain, only to 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:11.320 find that he was heading straight towards a precipitous ravine. 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.160 As he later told his son, it was as if 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:19.600 someone was deliberately pushing him in that direction. It was 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.080 with no little effort that he found he had to 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:26.000 force himself to correct course before continuing his way down 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:32.320 the mountain safely. Some weeks later, Densham experienced an even 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:37.360 eeria encounter. This time he was accompanied by a climbing partner, 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.760 Richard Frere. As the two men neared the mountain summit 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:46.560 once again, the landscape became shrouded in a dense fog. 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:50.840 The fog became so thick that the two men quickly 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:55.160 lost sight of each other. As Densham steadily continued on 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:58.360 his way, he heard the faint sound of Frere's voice 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.640 and another voice to talking to each other. Assuming his 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.960 friend had bumped into another climber, Densham joined in the 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:10.400 discussion from a distance The conversation continued for a while 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:14.240 until the other voice dropped out, at which point Densham 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.760 asked Frere who he'd been talking to, but Frere was 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:21.400 confused the whole time. He thought he was just talking 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:26.400 to Densham. Three years later, and Richard Frere was back 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:30.120 on the mountain standing alone. At one point he heard 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.120 the eerie sound of what he took to be someone 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:44.720 singing a single, high pitched note. On hearing Peter Densham 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:48.200 and Richard Frere's stories, a mutual friend who wished to 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:52.240 remain anonymous, confessed that around that same time he had 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.400 been camping on Ben mcdowey one night when he suddenly 0:14:55.440 --> 0:15:00.200 awoke with an inescapable feeling of dread. He opened his 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:04.960 tent and looked outside. There he saw a large figure 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:09.240 with dark hair, standing silhouetted in front of the moon. 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:15.440 In nineteen fifty eight, the naturalist and mountaineer Alexander Tunian 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.920 published an article in The Scots Magazine in which he 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:22.880 described a solo climbing trip in the Cairngorms from nineteen 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:27.080 forty three. One afternoon, he wrote, just as he reached 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.480 the summit of Ben mcdowey, a mist swelled up from 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:35.360 a famous pass below known as the Larry Grew. Tunian 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.840 pulled on some extra layers as the weather conditions rapidly 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:42.400 became dark and oppressive, and a fierce wind sprang up, 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:46.760 feathering and whistling among the boulders around him. Then he 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:54.640 heard a loud footstep pierce the mist, then another and another. 0:15:56.880 --> 0:16:00.640 Straining his eyes toward where the sound came from, Tunian 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:04.040 claimed that a strange shape suddenly loomed up out of 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.840 the mist. As he attempted to make out what exactly 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:10.760 it was, the figure appeared to recede for a moment, 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.000 only to emerge from the mist yet again, and this 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:19.160 time to charge at the climber. Managing to keep his composure, 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:23.160 Tunian whipped out a revolver and fired three times at 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.600 the ghostly figure, but this failed to make it retreat. 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.160 At this point, like several men before him, his nerves 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:33.480 got the better of him and he turned and ran, 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:37.080 not stopping for breath until he reached the valley of 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:42.040 Glenderry below. Tunian commented in his article that he'd never 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:46.760 traveled that path so quickly before or since. He believed 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:52.880 that what he'd seen was the big gray man. During 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:57.000 the early nineteen twenties, former president of the Moray Mountaineering 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.640 Club Tom Crowley was descending from a peak to the 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.680 west of Ben mcdowey when a huge, gray, mist shrouded 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:09.600 figure with pointed ears, long legs, and fingerlike talons on 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:14.119 its feet came into view. There's no record of whether 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:19.879 Crowley turned and ran Meanwhile, in his book one hundred 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:25.359 Strangest Unexplained Mysterets, writer Matt Lammy describes the experience of 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:28.560 three men who claimed to have come face to face 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:32.560 with an eerie, dark, human shaped figure in a forest 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:36.920 in Aberdeenshire, on the eastern side of the Cairngorms. They 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.600 claimed to have seen a face looking at them from 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:44.160 between tree branches, which was, in their words, human but 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:47.840 not human. One of the men claimed to have thrown 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.959 a stone at it, causing it to disappear into the trees. 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:55.000 A few weeks later, the same trio were driving in 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.320 the area when the men alleged that the same bipedal 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.920 creature suddenly appeared from out of the trees and pursued 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.400 their car, running it up to forty five miles per hour. 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.320 After some time, it eventually gave up and apparently stood 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.600 in the middle of the road, just watching as the 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:25.320 car and its frightened occupants sped away. Despite the various reports, 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.639 no photographs of the so called Big Gray Man have 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:33.159 ever been taken. Photographer John Rennie did take shots of 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:37.480 a series of footprints measuring nineteen inches long and fourteen 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.760 inches white, that he found in the Spey Valley below 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.680 the mountain, believing them to be those of the creature. 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.720 It was only later that he discovered they weren't footprints 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:51.080 at all, but caused by a natural process that occurs 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:55.639 when rainfall melts the snow. Some skeptics are of the 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:59.199 firm belief that there is no Big Gray Man, and 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.080 that he is in stead dead, a manifestation of a 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:07.600 well known mountain phenomenon. Born in seventeen seventy, James Hogg 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:12.640 was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist. In seventeen ninety one, 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:16.400 the author was walking on Ben mcdowey when he encountered 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:20.520 what he described as a giant blackamore, an archaic term 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:25.159 for Muslims from North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, at 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:28.680 least thirty feet high. Hogg wrote that it had all 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:32.520 the appearances of a giant, long limbed, gray silhouette of 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:35.800 a man, which seemed to stand against the backdrop of 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:40.080 the clouds behind it. At first, the author was struck 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:44.399 powerless with astonishment and terror, but his terror began to 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:48.840 subside when he realized that the figure was aping his gestures. 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:52.920 When Hogg raised his arm, the gray man raised his. 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:56.960 When he held its leg to one side, the apparition 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:01.080 did the same with the exact same timing, took off 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.959 its hat at the same moment he did. With a 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:09.040 flash of relief and comprehension, Hogg realized that the gray 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:14.880 Man was just his own shadow. These days, this atmospheric 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:19.480 phenomenon is well known to hikers and mountaineers. It's called 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:23.080 a Brocken specter, named after the brock And Peak in 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:27.800 Germany's Hartz Mountains, where as on many Scottish peaks it's 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.960 a frequent occurrence. It's caused when a low angled sun's 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:35.679 rays filter through low cloud or fog to produce the 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:40.520 shadow of a person, which appears elongated, almost like something 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:45.480 coming out of the mist on which it's projected. The giant, 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:50.240 gray humanoid shape is often surrounded by a rainbow hued halo, 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:56.840 giving it a ghostly, almost angelic appearance. Non Believers in 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:00.600 the Big Gray Man have also pointed out to the 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:03.919 strange sounds that some climates have heard, that the wind 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:07.960 can make extraordinary sounds as it howls and whistles over 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:13.440 exposed rocks, outcrops, and boulders. One mountain on the eastern 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:17.439 side of the Grampians, called Loch Nagar is even named 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:21.720 the Lock of the Outcry, or in Gallic, Loch Nagara, 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.480 due to the frequent moaning and howling of the wind 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:28.159 among its rocks, while a past to the south is 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:33.199 called baloch and Scarnia, or rocks that make noises. And 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:38.479 yet experienced mountaineers who've reported hearing the creature would almost 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:42.240 certainly be familiar with just such a thing. And if 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.959 the Big Gray Man is merely an optical illusion, what 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:50.760 of the alleged encounters that have happened after sunset, not 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:54.840 to mention the inexplicable sounds of footsteps and the sudden 0:21:54.880 --> 0:22:08.600 sense of panic that is said to accompany them. Mountain panic, 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:13.000 more formally known as high place phenomenon, can affect people 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:17.400 in different ways. Physiologically, is thought to be caused by 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:22.800 the brain misinterpreting a survival safety signal to back up instead, 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:26.639 sometimes leading to a desire to jump from a high place, 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:32.280 which only intensifies the sudden onrush of anxiety. It can 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:35.960 be induced by a lack of oxygen, stress, and fatigue. 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:41.880 The symptoms, like the feeling of losing control of a situation, dizziness, 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:46.440 or shallowness of breath, can vary, but a universal symptom 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:49.880 is a sense of impending doom, which can strike when 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:54.800 you least expect it. Magazine editor Sarah Collins was alone 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:57.840 on a chairlift at almost four thousand feet above sea 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:01.359 level while on holiday in the Canadian Rockies when the 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:06.600 thought suddenly came into her head to jump. Surveying the 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:10.880 magnificent array of mountain peaks around her, Collins was gripped 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:13.600 by a sense of dread and the feeling she was 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:17.760 about to lose control of her body. A former sufferer 0:23:17.800 --> 0:23:22.879 of obsessive compulsive disorder, she'd successfully developed techniques for suppressing 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:28.239 recurring intrusive thoughts and had considered herself cured, but on 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:32.000 this occasion she was experiencing a combination of jet lack 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:36.720 and the sense of being in an unfamiliar environment. Now, 0:23:36.720 --> 0:23:41.400 she became overwhelmed by a full blown panic attack. Collins 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:44.600 gripped tighter and tighter onto the metal bar in front 0:23:44.600 --> 0:23:48.080 of her, the only thing between her and the abyss below. 0:23:49.359 --> 0:23:52.000 For ten long minutes, she had the feeling that at 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:55.000 any moment she might give in to the impulse to 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:59.879 launch herself off the chair. Eventually, the calming voice of 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:03.640 mental health professional that she'd been treated by years ago 0:24:04.080 --> 0:24:08.440 came back to her. Collins described the antidote as being 0:24:08.440 --> 0:24:12.119 akin to allowing yourself to just float rather than thrash 0:24:12.160 --> 0:24:16.560 the water when you think you're about to drown. Gradually, 0:24:16.800 --> 0:24:19.760 she persuaded herself to relax her grip on the bar 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:24.200 and lie back in the chair. She survived the ride. 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:29.200 Could it be that mountaineers who have seen the Big 0:24:29.240 --> 0:24:34.080 Gray Man have often been suffering from mountain panic, experiencing 0:24:34.160 --> 0:24:38.520 symptoms recognized by psychologists as often brought on by a 0:24:38.560 --> 0:24:44.000 combination of isolation and exhaustion. Even experienced and well trained 0:24:44.040 --> 0:24:49.280 adventurers can succumb to hallucinations under the combined assault of fatigue, 0:24:49.520 --> 0:24:54.480 low oxygen, the cold, and a desolate landscape. There are 0:24:54.520 --> 0:24:58.600 many accounts of hill walkers and climbers experiencing the high 0:24:58.680 --> 0:25:02.480 place phenomenon across the British Isles, in places as far 0:25:02.520 --> 0:25:06.239 afield as the Isle of Sky, the Grampian Highlands and 0:25:06.280 --> 0:25:10.439 the mountains of England and Wales. Almost all accounts of 0:25:10.520 --> 0:25:14.000 the Big Gray Man include a sense of being overtaken 0:25:14.240 --> 0:25:18.320 by feelings of dread, sometimes so much that some on 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:22.960 Ben mcdowey have reported being drawn towards the precipitous drop 0:25:23.240 --> 0:25:26.919 at a place called lurch Ats Crack, almost prepared to 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:30.600 throw themselves over the edge. So intense is the feeling. 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:42.239 And then, of course there is infrasound. It has been 0:25:42.280 --> 0:25:46.280 known for some time that infrasound can affect human physiology 0:25:46.359 --> 0:25:50.440 and psychology. There have even been clinical experiments to test it. 0:25:51.280 --> 0:25:53.920 In two thousand and four, at the School of Mechanical 0:25:53.960 --> 0:25:58.159 Science and Engineering at Waalsong University in wu Han, China, 0:25:58.560 --> 0:26:00.880 a study was carried out to honor to the changes 0:26:00.920 --> 0:26:04.840 of blood pressure, heart rate, and the subjective feelings of 0:26:04.920 --> 0:26:10.640 subjects exposed to infrasound. The study adopted two different infrasonic 0:26:10.720 --> 0:26:14.680 treatments based around the sound wave frequency of two herts 0:26:14.720 --> 0:26:19.320 and four herts. During the experiment, One group was exposed 0:26:19.320 --> 0:26:21.960 to infrasound of two herts at a volume of one 0:26:22.040 --> 0:26:25.480 hundred decibels for one hour, while a second group was 0:26:25.520 --> 0:26:28.080 exposed to four herts at a volume of one hundred 0:26:28.080 --> 0:26:31.439 and twenty decibels for one hour. Any noise with a 0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:35.159 frequency over twenty hertz, the lower limit of human hearing 0:26:35.560 --> 0:26:39.280 was minimized. To avoid any interference with the results. A 0:26:39.320 --> 0:26:42.919 blood pressure meter and cardio tachometer were used to measure 0:26:42.920 --> 0:26:45.960 any changes in the subjects blood pressure and heart rate. 0:26:46.960 --> 0:26:50.600 It was found that exposure to both frequencies of infrasound 0:26:50.840 --> 0:26:55.680 made the subjects feel headachey, fretful, and tired. When exposed 0:26:55.720 --> 0:26:58.800 of four hurts over an hour, the blood pressure and 0:26:58.880 --> 0:27:05.080 heart rate of most participants rose. In natural settings, infrasount 0:27:05.240 --> 0:27:09.360 can be generated by the wind. You may remember in 0:27:09.440 --> 0:27:13.600 season seven, episode twenty one, Wild is the Wind, we 0:27:13.720 --> 0:27:16.439 told the story of the Reverend James Pike and his 0:27:16.520 --> 0:27:20.119 wife Diane, who some suspect was driven mad by the 0:27:20.200 --> 0:27:23.520 wind while on a research trip in the Judean Desert. 0:27:24.280 --> 0:27:30.240 Pike died in mysterious circumstances on the expedition. Wind generated 0:27:30.320 --> 0:27:35.280 infrasount has been implicated in causing feelings of uneasiness, anxiety, 0:27:35.760 --> 0:27:40.400 and paranormal sightings for some time, and mountains are frequently 0:27:40.480 --> 0:27:45.240 windy places. In nineteen ninety eight, in the Journal of 0:27:45.280 --> 0:27:49.800 the Society for Psychical Research, researcher Vic Tandy published a 0:27:49.840 --> 0:27:54.600 study showing how a nineteen hertz standing airwave just below 0:27:54.680 --> 0:27:58.399 the human ability to hear it may, under certain conditions 0:27:58.840 --> 0:28:02.760 create sensory for no nomina in humans suggestive of a ghost. 0:28:03.840 --> 0:28:07.320 In the paper titled the Ghost in the Machine, Tandy 0:28:07.359 --> 0:28:11.080 advised researchers of paranoral experiences to try and rule out 0:28:11.160 --> 0:28:17.640 this potential natural explanation for their investigations. All that being said, 0:28:18.080 --> 0:28:22.080 As recently as twenty twenty two, Scottish newspaper The Daily 0:28:22.160 --> 0:28:25.440 Record ran a story about a guest staying at mar 0:28:25.560 --> 0:28:28.720 Lodge in the cair Grants who'd left a post on 0:28:28.800 --> 0:28:33.320