1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,000 Speaker 1: Hello, It's Richard mclin smith here again. Before we begin 2 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,240 Speaker 1: this week's episode, I just wanted to give another shout 3 00:00:05,240 --> 00:00:07,880 Speaker 1: out to a new show that I've been producing. It's 4 00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:11,240 Speaker 1: called Rescue and is hosted by survival expert Donnie Dust. 5 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: Rescue takes you deep into the heart of the world's 6 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:17,440 Speaker 1: most astonishing rescue stories told by the people who were there. 7 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:20,439 Speaker 1: All of them are absolute heroes, and it's been a 8 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:23,880 Speaker 1: real honor to bring their stories to you. Rescue is 9 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:27,520 Speaker 1: out now on all the usual platforms now Back to 10 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:42,920 Speaker 1: one explained. The girl relaxed back into the short alpine 11 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:46,760 Speaker 1: grass and stared up at the sky. It was early 12 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 1: summer in this high valley of the Himalayas, surrounded by towering, 13 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:54,560 Speaker 1: snow capped mountain peaks, topped with a deep blue sky 14 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:58,800 Speaker 1: made all the darker by the thin air. The sparse 15 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:03,480 Speaker 1: grasses were dotted with wild flowers, and a herd of yaks, cows, 16 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:10,200 Speaker 1: sheep and goats grazed contentedly nearby. Chettun Tamang, the daughter 17 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:13,240 Speaker 1: of a Sherpa family from the village of lang Tang 18 00:01:13,319 --> 00:01:16,360 Speaker 1: in Nepal, had been sent to tend the family's herd 19 00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:20,200 Speaker 1: in the high pastures over the summer, a task she'd 20 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:23,920 Speaker 1: performed alone every year since she was around eight years old. 21 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:29,280 Speaker 1: It was a remote spot because her father always insisted 22 00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: on taking their animals well beyond the usual grazing areas 23 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:36,399 Speaker 1: used by other families in the village in order to 24 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 1: find the best grass. She was staying in the family 25 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 1: yak Kirka, a simple dwelling of stone walls which the 26 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:48,600 Speaker 1: family re roofed every spring with strips of bamboo specially 27 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:53,320 Speaker 1: woven together for the purpose. Born in this very spot, 28 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:58,560 Speaker 1: the girl was almost completely at ease alone with the animals, 29 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 1: surrounded by the immense mountain peaks of the Himalayas. She 30 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:09,800 Speaker 1: was afraid of only one thing, falling asleep. Her parents 31 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: had told her time and time again that snow leopards 32 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:18,360 Speaker 1: stalked the surrounding slopes. If she saw one, Chetton would 33 00:02:18,360 --> 00:02:22,040 Speaker 1: have to make plenty of noise. The leopards mostly avoided 34 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:25,720 Speaker 1: people and were easy to frighten away, but if she 35 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:29,160 Speaker 1: fell asleep, a leopard could slink close to the herd 36 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:32,760 Speaker 1: and quickly make off with one of the animals, and 37 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:35,919 Speaker 1: the family couldn't afford to lose even a single baby, 38 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,400 Speaker 1: yak or goat, But there was something else that Cheten 39 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:44,360 Speaker 1: was wary of too. Growing up in her home village 40 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,160 Speaker 1: of Langtang, Chetton had been told many stories by her 41 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:52,480 Speaker 1: grandmother about the strange creatures that were also said to 42 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:56,760 Speaker 1: stalk the surrounding mountains and pastures. They were said to 43 00:02:56,800 --> 00:03:01,120 Speaker 1: be huge, around ten to twelve feet tall, and covered 44 00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:05,040 Speaker 1: in long brown hair so dense that it was sometimes 45 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:09,800 Speaker 1: hard to see their eyes. These creatures were extremely strong 46 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:15,520 Speaker 1: and powerfully built, and walked on two legs, apparently not 47 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:21,840 Speaker 1: very intelligent nor speaking any discernible language. Nevertheless, they seemed 48 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:25,680 Speaker 1: to understand what humans were saying and sometimes liked to 49 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:29,959 Speaker 1: hang around the sherpa copying what they were doing. You 50 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: knew if one or more were in the area because 51 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:38,000 Speaker 1: they communicated by a kind of muling whistling call. And 52 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:44,200 Speaker 1: these creatures could also be very dangerous, sometimes allegedly killing 53 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:49,920 Speaker 1: and eating villages, especially small children. The last one that 54 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:52,560 Speaker 1: was thought to have lived in the area was said 55 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,920 Speaker 1: to have been killed when Chetton's father was a small boy. 56 00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: They called it Yete, otherwise known as YETI you're listening 57 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:17,000 Speaker 1: to unexplained and I'm Richard mclan smith. For centuries, the 58 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:23,159 Speaker 1: Himalayan people of Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, India, and China have 59 00:04:23,279 --> 00:04:27,680 Speaker 1: recognized the existence of the yeti, an anglicized version of 60 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:32,560 Speaker 1: the word yete, which translates roughly to that thing or 61 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 1: man like animal. According to the descriptions, there are several 62 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,839 Speaker 1: types of yeti based on size and location. The smallest, 63 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:47,240 Speaker 1: sometimes called the little yeti or te ema, live in 64 00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:51,360 Speaker 1: forested mountain valleys below the snow line, no more than 65 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 1: around four feet tall, with reddish gray hair and pointed, 66 00:04:55,600 --> 00:05:00,240 Speaker 1: sloping heads. They are said to feed on small mammals. 67 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:04,760 Speaker 1: Then there are the classic yete, described as about the 68 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:07,760 Speaker 1: height of a young boy or up to around five 69 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:11,520 Speaker 1: feet tall. They too are said to have conical heads 70 00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 1: and are stocky and ape like, with short, coarse, reddish 71 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 1: brown hair, wide mouths, with large teeth, and very long arms. 72 00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:27,760 Speaker 1: Supposedly living and mostly dense Himalayan rhododendron forests at elevations 73 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:31,720 Speaker 1: above fourteen thousand, five hundred feet, they are most famous 74 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:35,560 Speaker 1: for supposedly leaving their tracks in the snow when crossing 75 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:40,039 Speaker 1: the mountains from valley to valley. Next, there is the 76 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:45,680 Speaker 1: big yeti, or zoute. Descriptions of this creature resemble most 77 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:50,839 Speaker 1: closely a large bear, reported to live between thirteen thousand 78 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:54,360 Speaker 1: to fifteen thousand feet above sea level. They are said 79 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:59,400 Speaker 1: to walk mainly on fore legs, but sometimes bipeedally, and 80 00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:02,200 Speaker 1: are known for their attacks on yaks, which they are 81 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:06,200 Speaker 1: said to kill by ferociously grabbing the horns and twisting 82 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:12,039 Speaker 1: their necks. And then the rather than ni almo. Living 83 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:16,159 Speaker 1: at elevations above thirteen thousand feet, they are said to 84 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:21,279 Speaker 1: be between ten and fifteen feet tall, with enormous conical heads, 85 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:27,080 Speaker 1: rumored to feed on yaks, mountain sheep, and sometimes on humans. 86 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:32,320 Speaker 1: It was these terrifying creatures that teenage Yak herder Chetton 87 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:37,359 Speaker 1: had learned about from her grandmother. According to her, the 88 00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:41,719 Speaker 1: yeties or nilmo that used to inhabit the mountains above 89 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:45,719 Speaker 1: lang Tang had a bizarre habit. They seem to like 90 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:49,640 Speaker 1: to watch then try to copy what they saw humans doing. 91 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:54,440 Speaker 1: Over the years, the Sherpa people had apparently used this 92 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:59,200 Speaker 1: curious habit to gradually kill them off. In one story, 93 00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:03,599 Speaker 1: several families collected strands of wool from their herds and 94 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:08,400 Speaker 1: rolled them into large, uneven gray balls that looked like boulders. 95 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:12,119 Speaker 1: Then they went to the opposite banks of a fast 96 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:16,000 Speaker 1: flowing mountain river and started throwing the fake boulders at 97 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:20,560 Speaker 1: each other, pretending to fight. A group of yeties who 98 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:23,640 Speaker 1: were said to have observed this, started to do the 99 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:28,400 Speaker 1: same thing, but with real boulders in the process. They 100 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:32,000 Speaker 1: hit and injured their group so badly that they fell 101 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:42,480 Speaker 1: into the torrent and were swept away. By the early 102 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:46,600 Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, when Chettun's father was around five years old, 103 00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:51,000 Speaker 1: her grandmother said that there was only one remaining yeti 104 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:54,240 Speaker 1: known to be in the area. It seemed to have 105 00:07:54,280 --> 00:07:59,160 Speaker 1: a particularly aggressive disposition and was rumored by local villagers 106 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 1: to have snag and eaten several young children in the 107 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:09,080 Speaker 1: high yak pastures above lang Tang. This yeti had supposedly 108 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:12,720 Speaker 1: been seen periodically by a couple who were staying in 109 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:17,600 Speaker 1: their yak kirka with their newborn baby. The simple stone 110 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:21,239 Speaker 1: walled shelter where they lived over the summer months, tending 111 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:26,360 Speaker 1: their animals at no door, just an open entrance. The 112 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 1: only way to secure that entrance was to place tree 113 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:34,400 Speaker 1: branches across it, not as specially secure against an enormously 114 00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:39,559 Speaker 1: strong creature. Having not seen the Yeti for a few weeks, 115 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:43,800 Speaker 1: the husband decided to walk down to the village, about 116 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:47,439 Speaker 1: an eight hour trek away, to fetch much needed supplies 117 00:08:47,679 --> 00:08:51,640 Speaker 1: for his family and his herd. He left his wife 118 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:56,520 Speaker 1: alone with their baby to tend to the yaks. On 119 00:08:56,640 --> 00:08:59,560 Speaker 1: such trips he would typically stay away for a night 120 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:03,959 Speaker 1: and come back the next day, But after three days 121 00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:09,560 Speaker 1: the man had not returned. Despite her concerns, his wife 122 00:09:09,559 --> 00:09:12,600 Speaker 1: had no choice but to stay with the animals rather 123 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:17,040 Speaker 1: than go looking for him. The following morning, she was 124 00:09:17,080 --> 00:09:20,200 Speaker 1: busy milking a jack when she heard the baby crying 125 00:09:20,400 --> 00:09:24,920 Speaker 1: from inside the cooka. Quickly finishing up, she went to 126 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:28,960 Speaker 1: tend to it. Went to her horror, she supposedly found 127 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:33,240 Speaker 1: the Yeti who'd been plaguing her family now standing inside 128 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:37,960 Speaker 1: the stone dwelling. Not only that, but it was cradling 129 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:43,240 Speaker 1: her baby in its arms. Thinking fast, the terrified woman 130 00:09:43,559 --> 00:09:46,360 Speaker 1: was then said to have taken some water that had 131 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:49,760 Speaker 1: been heating over the fire and began washing her hair 132 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:54,160 Speaker 1: with it, just as she'd hoped. The Yeti then apparently 133 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:58,160 Speaker 1: made gestures which indicated it too would like her to 134 00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:02,679 Speaker 1: wash its hair, and so the woman did, but instead 135 00:10:02,679 --> 00:10:05,680 Speaker 1: of using the pan of warm water, she took a 136 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:10,120 Speaker 1: can of kerosene instead and poured it over the Yeti's head. 137 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:15,160 Speaker 1: Then she moved herself closer to the fire and dropped 138 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:19,040 Speaker 1: her head down toward the flames, motioning for the Yeti 139 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:24,319 Speaker 1: to do the same, as Chettun's grandmother explained. When the 140 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:28,240 Speaker 1: Yeti did as the woman suggested, its head and fur 141 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:32,520 Speaker 1: lit up instantly in flames. The Yeti ran, grunting and 142 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:36,360 Speaker 1: snarling from the stone shelter and headed straight towards the 143 00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:40,240 Speaker 1: nearby river, but died before it could reach the water. 144 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:46,000 Speaker 1: The woman grabbed a large sharp knife and watched from 145 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:49,240 Speaker 1: a distance until she was sure that the Yeti was dead. 146 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:53,960 Speaker 1: On reaching its partly charred corpse, she is then said 147 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:58,400 Speaker 1: to have sliced the creature open right down its massive belly, 148 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:05,200 Speaker 1: Its stomach ripped open, partially digested remains of human body 149 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:10,120 Speaker 1: parts and fragments of clothing spilled out onto the ground 150 00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:15,680 Speaker 1: around it. Among them, the woman recognized the remains of 151 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:29,520 Speaker 1: her husband. The first known Yeti report from the Himalayas 152 00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:34,560 Speaker 1: made by a European was in eighteen thirty two. Trekker 153 00:11:34,840 --> 00:11:40,000 Speaker 1: Brian Hodgson was walking through northern Nepal assisted by local guides, 154 00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:43,160 Speaker 1: when they all spotted what he said was a large 155 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:47,760 Speaker 1: creature covered in long, dark hair, with no tail and 156 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:51,599 Speaker 1: walking on two legs. Hodgson took it to be in 157 00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:55,320 Speaker 1: a Rangatan, even though that species would have been several 158 00:11:55,400 --> 00:12:01,760 Speaker 1: thousand miles from its natural Smartran jungle home. His local guides, however, 159 00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:06,959 Speaker 1: took the creature to be something else. Entirely frightened, they 160 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:11,640 Speaker 1: refused to shoot at it and fled. Hodgson even published 161 00:12:11,640 --> 00:12:14,240 Speaker 1: a report of the sighting in the Journal of the 162 00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:19,920 Speaker 1: Asiatic Society of Benngre. It would be another sixty years 163 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:24,360 Speaker 1: before the next European sighting of an apparent yetty appeared 164 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:30,360 Speaker 1: in print. In eighteen ninety nine, British adventurer Lawrence Waddle, 165 00:12:30,679 --> 00:12:34,920 Speaker 1: who'd spent around fifteen years exploring the region, published its 166 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:39,760 Speaker 1: travel book Among the Himalayas. In it, he recounted coming 167 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:44,560 Speaker 1: across enormous footprints in the snow. Though his local guides 168 00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:49,160 Speaker 1: insisted it was some kind of wild man, Waddle believed 169 00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:52,880 Speaker 1: the prints were in fact left by a Himalayan brown bear. 170 00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:58,880 Speaker 1: Reports of Himalayan wild men reached Europe with increasing frequency 171 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:03,440 Speaker 1: as more and more foreigners traveled to the region. Colonel 172 00:13:03,559 --> 00:13:08,480 Speaker 1: Charles Howard Berry, an Anglo Irish explorer and botanist, set 173 00:13:08,520 --> 00:13:11,720 Speaker 1: off to climb the lak Pa Pass early one morning 174 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:16,679 Speaker 1: in September nineteen twenty one. During the trek, he and 175 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:21,199 Speaker 1: his party encountered a set of strange footprints, which Howard 176 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:25,360 Speaker 1: Berry decided had been made by a loping wolf before 177 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:30,199 Speaker 1: becoming distorted by the melting snow, but the expedition porters 178 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:34,760 Speaker 1: immediately identified them as those of what they called a 179 00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:40,360 Speaker 1: meta kang me or man bear snow creature. On the 180 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:44,240 Speaker 1: group's return to Britain, some of the expedition team were 181 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:52,000 Speaker 1: interviewed by journalist Henry Newman. Newman mistranslated meta kangm as 182 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:57,400 Speaker 1: abominable snowman. The name would quickly become etched in the mind. 183 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:10,320 Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty five, Greek explorer Nicolaus Tombarsi was camping 184 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:14,120 Speaker 1: close to the Zemu Gap, a twenty five thousand foot 185 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:17,920 Speaker 1: peak located on a ridge just east to the summit 186 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:23,600 Speaker 1: of Kangchenjunga, the third highest peak in the world. One morning, 187 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,880 Speaker 1: his porters called him from its tent to come and 188 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:33,480 Speaker 1: see something. Tombarsi duly joined them, where after initially being 189 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:37,680 Speaker 1: blinded by the intense glare of bright sunlight reflecting off 190 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:41,720 Speaker 1: the snow, he saw a bizarre figure around three hundred 191 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:47,880 Speaker 1: yards away, human like in shape and walking upright, silhouetted 192 00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:51,760 Speaker 1: against the blinding snow. Tomarsi could not make out what 193 00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:55,920 Speaker 1: color it was, but could discern that whatever it was 194 00:14:55,920 --> 00:15:00,680 Speaker 1: wasn't wearing any clothes. Every so often, the creature was 195 00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:04,680 Speaker 1: said to stoop and uproot a road dendron bush, before 196 00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:09,480 Speaker 1: it wandered eventually from view into some thick scrub. Tom 197 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:12,960 Speaker 1: Barzi apparently went over to where the creature had been 198 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:17,520 Speaker 1: and saw footprints that he described as similar in shape 199 00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:20,560 Speaker 1: to those of a man, but only six to seven 200 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:25,840 Speaker 1: inches long. Marks of five toes and an instep were clear. 201 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:31,400 Speaker 1: He concluded that the prints were undoubtedly those of a biped, 202 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:35,560 Speaker 1: but like the explorers before him, he was skeptical that 203 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:40,000 Speaker 1: this was a yetty. He decided instead that he'd seen 204 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:44,600 Speaker 1: a wandering hermit or holy man, although he did confess 205 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:48,320 Speaker 1: that the lack of clothes and bare feet did seem 206 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:54,480 Speaker 1: odd at such a high altitude. Just over a decade later, 207 00:15:55,000 --> 00:16:00,400 Speaker 1: another British explorer John Hunt was in eastern Nepal. Hunt 208 00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:03,360 Speaker 1: would later be awarded a knighthood for leading the nineteen 209 00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:07,600 Speaker 1: fifty three expedition in which Tensing Norgay and Sir Edmund 210 00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:12,920 Speaker 1: Hillary successfully summited Mount Everest. But on this earlier trip, 211 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:16,320 Speaker 1: he was climbing on the northern face of the Zemu Gap, 212 00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:21,120 Speaker 1: the same area of the Himalayas that Nicolaus Tombarsi had been. 213 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:25,600 Speaker 1: At a height of nineteen thousand feet, he came upon 214 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:31,400 Speaker 1: two lines of what looked like human footprints. At first, 215 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:34,960 Speaker 1: Hunt thought that some one had simply walked over the 216 00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:38,720 Speaker 1: area before him, but had later emerged that there was 217 00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:41,360 Speaker 1: no one else on that part at the mountain at 218 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:46,600 Speaker 1: the time. The following year, in nineteen thirty eight, the 219 00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:51,600 Speaker 1: German paramilitary organization the s S briefly went looking for 220 00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:54,760 Speaker 1: the Yeti while on the hunt for evidence of a 221 00:16:54,800 --> 00:17:07,080 Speaker 1: new and strange idea. Back in eighteen ninety four, Austrian 222 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:11,040 Speaker 1: engineer Hans Herbeger was staring up at the moon when 223 00:17:11,080 --> 00:17:14,880 Speaker 1: he had a sudden epiphany. What if the reason the 224 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:18,560 Speaker 1: moon shines so brightly in the sky was because it 225 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:22,840 Speaker 1: was made of ice? What if ice, in fact was 226 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:28,399 Speaker 1: fundamental to the existence of the universe. Herbeger was an 227 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:32,399 Speaker 1: expert in his field, but had no training in cosmology 228 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:37,240 Speaker 1: or physics. It didn't stop him obsessing over his new idea, however. 229 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:42,679 Speaker 1: Then one night he had a dream. It was a vision, 230 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:46,879 Speaker 1: he said, of a pendulum swinging back and forth until 231 00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:50,439 Speaker 1: it broke. He believed it was a sign that he 232 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:56,679 Speaker 1: was onto something. Herbeger's idea became known as world ice theory. 233 00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:01,719 Speaker 1: It asserted, essentially that ice was the basic component of 234 00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:07,240 Speaker 1: all cosmic processes. It eventually gained a significant amount of support, 235 00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:11,640 Speaker 1: with many in Adolf Hitler's circle, especially enthused by its 236 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:15,960 Speaker 1: potential to one seat more widely held ideas about the 237 00:18:16,040 --> 00:18:21,280 Speaker 1: nature of the universe, which they regarded as inherently Jewish ideas. 238 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:26,159 Speaker 1: And so it was in nineteen thirty eight that German 239 00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:30,440 Speaker 1: zoologist Professor Ernst Schaeffer was sent on a top secret 240 00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:35,359 Speaker 1: mission to Tibet by Joseph Goebels, in part to find 241 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:40,320 Speaker 1: evidence of her Bigger's theory. Sadly for them, since the 242 00:18:40,359 --> 00:18:46,280 Speaker 1: idea was utter nonsense, they found nothing. Schaeffer did, however, 243 00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:50,159 Speaker 1: become intrigued by the YETI myth while trekking through the 244 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:55,320 Speaker 1: icy mountainous terrain, much like Lawrence Waddle. It was also 245 00:18:55,480 --> 00:18:59,760 Speaker 1: his conclusion that the creature was most likely just a bear. 246 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:14,360 Speaker 1: In the autumn of nineteen fifty one, English mountaineer Eric 247 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:18,679 Speaker 1: Shipton led an expedition to survey possible routes to the 248 00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:22,920 Speaker 1: summit of Mount Everest from Nepal. The findings from that 249 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:26,719 Speaker 1: trip paved the way for the first successful recorded ascent 250 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:31,280 Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty three, but the fifty one expedition was 251 00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:37,880 Speaker 1: to become famous for something else entirely. One afternoon Tenzing, Norgay, 252 00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:41,880 Speaker 1: Eric Shipton and Michael Ward, who was a surgeon as 253 00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:45,560 Speaker 1: well as a mountaineer, were descending from a high pass 254 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:50,600 Speaker 1: when at around sixteen thousand feet they came across something 255 00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:54,960 Speaker 1: astounding on the lower part of a glacier, a series 256 00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:58,919 Speaker 1: of footprints in a two to four inch covering of snow. 257 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:03,639 Speaker 1: The print seemed to have descended from another pass that 258 00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:07,560 Speaker 1: reared up about three thousand feet above them, and were 259 00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:12,280 Speaker 1: in two groups. One set were fairly indistinct and led 260 00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:16,680 Speaker 1: out onto the surrounding snow fields. The others were much 261 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:22,680 Speaker 1: more detailed. Stunned Eric Shipton told Ward to place his 262 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:27,400 Speaker 1: ice axe alongside them for scale. Then he took out 263 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:32,280 Speaker 1: his camera and snapped four photographs. A short time later, 264 00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:37,199 Speaker 1: one of these photographs, a now iconic image, appeared in 265 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:41,959 Speaker 1: newspapers all around the world. It showed a strangely wide, 266 00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:47,320 Speaker 1: single distinct footprint with wards twelve inch long ice ACKs 267 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:52,000 Speaker 1: next to it for scale. The footprint was nearly two 268 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:56,080 Speaker 1: times wider than a typical human foot, and was about 269 00:20:56,200 --> 00:21:00,280 Speaker 1: twelve to thirteen inches long. Going by the sh shape 270 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:03,240 Speaker 1: of it, the big toe appeared to be broader and 271 00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:07,160 Speaker 1: shorter than the other, rather in distinct toes, of which 272 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:10,600 Speaker 1: there seemed to be four or five. They were sunk 273 00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:14,160 Speaker 1: into the snow much deeper than the footprints made by 274 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:19,080 Speaker 1: the booted mountaineers, implying a much heavier creature, and did 275 00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:22,560 Speaker 1: not seem to be human. And even if they were, 276 00:21:23,280 --> 00:21:27,720 Speaker 1: how or why had someone or something walked through the 277 00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:34,560 Speaker 1: snow in freezing temperatures without any foot protection. The startled group, 278 00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:39,159 Speaker 1: keeping a keen lookout for whatever had created them, followed 279 00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:49,200 Speaker 1: the tracks down the glacier for almost a mile. Two 280 00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:52,760 Speaker 1: days later, the group were joined by two others who 281 00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:56,120 Speaker 1: also witnessed the tracks, which by that time had been 282 00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:58,800 Speaker 1: deformed by the effects of the sun and the wind. 283 00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:04,240 Speaker 1: Later wrote that despite evidence of obvious weathering, by the 284 00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:08,840 Speaker 1: time he saw the footprints, they were still surprising and inexplicable. 285 00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:12,879 Speaker 1: As he said later, what it is I don't know, 286 00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:16,240 Speaker 1: but I am quite clear that it is no animal 287 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:20,119 Speaker 1: known to live in the Himalaya, and that it is big. 288 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:26,960 Speaker 1: When Eric Shipton's mesmerizing photograph was published, it fueled excited 289 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:31,440 Speaker 1: speculation in news reports around the world that the Yeti 290 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:37,920 Speaker 1: really did exist. The following year, nineteen fifty two, famed 291 00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:42,760 Speaker 1: mountaineer Edmund Hillary is deep in his ongoing preparations for 292 00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:47,600 Speaker 1: making the first ascent of Mount Everest, about nineteen thousand 293 00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:50,960 Speaker 1: feet up. While climbing a steep pitch on a high 294 00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:56,480 Speaker 1: Himalayan pass with two Sherpa climbing partners, one of them, Pember, 295 00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:02,800 Speaker 1: suddenly stops and picks something off the Hillary looks on 296 00:23:03,119 --> 00:23:06,880 Speaker 1: as a greatly animated Pember shows it to his compatriot, 297 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:12,760 Speaker 1: ang Pember, who seems similarly impressed. Hillary asks the pair 298 00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:17,240 Speaker 1: what they are so excited about. Pember holds it out 299 00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:21,040 Speaker 1: for Hillary to see. It is a tuft of long 300 00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:25,720 Speaker 1: black hairs, thick and coarse. They look more like bristles 301 00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:30,679 Speaker 1: than anything else. It's yetty hair, he says, with the 302 00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:35,119 Speaker 1: look of such conviction that, as Hillary later reported, he 303 00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:39,520 Speaker 1: couldn't help but be impressed by it. A year later, 304 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:43,760 Speaker 1: on the twenty ninth of May nineteen fifty three, news 305 00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:47,760 Speaker 1: came from the Himalayas that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay 306 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:52,359 Speaker 1: had reached the summit of Everest. When the ensuing media 307 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:57,080 Speaker 1: frenzy began to subside, one British newspaper, The Daily Mail, 308 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:00,920 Speaker 1: was keen to have another big story form on the Himalayas. 309 00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:06,720 Speaker 1: While supposedly credible footprint evidence of the mysterious Yeti had 310 00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:11,720 Speaker 1: been found and photographed by reputable mountaineers, there was no 311 00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:16,960 Speaker 1: concrete proof of the creature itself, so The Daily Mail 312 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:21,880 Speaker 1: decided to fund an expedition to find and capture the Yeti. 313 00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:27,640 Speaker 1: The paper was no stranger to funding quests for mystery creatures. 314 00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:31,440 Speaker 1: It employed the actor and big game hunter Marmaduke weather 315 00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:35,639 Speaker 1: Or to go and find the Lockness Monster, as covered 316 00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:40,159 Speaker 1: in season seven, episode three of unexplained, a venture that 317 00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:45,520 Speaker 1: was to end in failure and ridicule. Undaunted, the Daily 318 00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:49,200 Speaker 1: Mail spent the equivalent of a million pounds in today's 319 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:53,040 Speaker 1: money to assemble and dispatch an expedition to go to 320 00:24:53,080 --> 00:25:00,359 Speaker 1: the Himalayas. The mission team included mountaineers, ornithologists, zoologists and 321 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:05,800 Speaker 1: three hundred seventy porters. They were given tranquilizer guns, a 322 00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:10,000 Speaker 1: cage and instructions to catch the yetti and ship it 323 00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:15,560 Speaker 1: back to London alive if possible. The quest would take 324 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:28,200 Speaker 1: fifteen weeks. Anthropologist and naturalist Charles Stonor was a member 325 00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:32,320 Speaker 1: of The Daily Mail's Yeti expedition. Arriving ahead of the 326 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:35,520 Speaker 1: main team, he was part of a group tasked with 327 00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:40,879 Speaker 1: finding a suitable location for the expedition's base camp. Having 328 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:44,320 Speaker 1: settled for a few nights in the village of Pangboche, 329 00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:48,560 Speaker 1: thirteen thousand feet up in the Sulukumbu district of Nepal, 330 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:53,119 Speaker 1: the team set about gathering testimonies from the local community. 331 00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:58,800 Speaker 1: Before long, Stoner was approached by a local herdsman named 332 00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:02,960 Speaker 1: Mingma As. The man went on to explain to him 333 00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:06,600 Speaker 1: four years before, he was watching over his yaks in 334 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,720 Speaker 1: the high pastures above the village when he thought he 335 00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:14,560 Speaker 1: heard another herdsman in the rocks above him, shouting as 336 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:19,040 Speaker 1: if calling out for a lost yak. Despite Mingma shouting 337 00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:23,280 Speaker 1: back that there were no stray creatures near by, the strange, 338 00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:29,720 Speaker 1: disembodied cries continued. Moments later, Mingma looked up in horror 339 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:33,960 Speaker 1: to see a large, hairy creature quickly moving down the 340 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:40,200 Speaker 1: mountain side toward him on two legs. Mingma scrambled back 341 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,840 Speaker 1: to his yakkirka and barricaded the door as best he 342 00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:49,159 Speaker 1: could with heavy breaths. He eventually summoned the courage to 343 00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:52,480 Speaker 1: peer out through a chink in the wall, and there, 344 00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:58,280 Speaker 1: standing right in front of him was a yeti. Mingma 345 00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:02,240 Speaker 1: described the creature as being squat and thick set, and 346 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,600 Speaker 1: about the size of a small man. It was also 347 00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:09,720 Speaker 1: covered with mostly short, reddish and black hair that was 348 00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:13,520 Speaker 1: long around the feet and had a high pointed forehead 349 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:18,080 Speaker 1: with a crest of hair on top. Mingma held his 350 00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:22,240 Speaker 1: breath as the yetty apparently lumbered around in front of 351 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:26,600 Speaker 1: the hut. It had long, muscled arms, with hands that 352 00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:31,320 Speaker 1: appeared larger and much stronger than a human's, and a distinct, 353 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:37,160 Speaker 1: large flat nose. Then suddenly it turned and stared right 354 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:42,280 Speaker 1: at the terrified Mingma. It snarled at him, revealing big 355 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:48,000 Speaker 1: sharp teeth. Battling his frightened wits, Mingma looked about the 356 00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:51,639 Speaker 1: hut for anything he could use as a weapon. He 357 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:54,719 Speaker 1: grabbed some wood and held it over the small fire 358 00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:58,960 Speaker 1: burning in the middle of the room. Then he flung 359 00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:01,760 Speaker 1: the flaming missile while at the yeti, with as much 360 00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:06,520 Speaker 1: force as he could manage. Thankfully, he said, the frightened 361 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:17,840 Speaker 1: creature ran off and did not return and enrapped. Charles 362 00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:22,880 Speaker 1: Stoner found Mingma's story quite believable. The man had received 363 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:26,880 Speaker 1: no reward for telling it. Indeed, he seemed quite surprised 364 00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:31,040 Speaker 1: that his listener was so interested, and when Stone asked 365 00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:33,760 Speaker 1: him to repeat the story for the benefit of other 366 00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:38,920 Speaker 1: expedition team members, Mingma did so without any variation in 367 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:44,600 Speaker 1: even the smallest of details. Stoner later showed Mingma a 368 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:50,640 Speaker 1: watercolor painting depicting an apelike hairy creature striding through a snowfield. 369 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:56,720 Speaker 1: Mingma took one look and instantly rejected it. It was 370 00:28:56,800 --> 00:29:00,480 Speaker 1: far too monkey like, he said. The creature he saw 371 00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:05,160 Speaker 1: was much closer to a human in appearance. This alleged 372 00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:08,120 Speaker 1: incident was said to have occurred on the high yak 373 00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:11,600 Speaker 1: pastures above the village of Pangboche, in one of the 374 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:15,080 Speaker 1: upper parts of the Dude Coosey Valley. It was in 375 00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:18,760 Speaker 1: that area that the Daily Mail's expedition made their base camp, 376 00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:23,080 Speaker 1: on a small flat stretch of pasture sandwiched between a 377 00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:27,560 Speaker 1: swirling mountain torrent and a thick, high altitude forest of 378 00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:33,880 Speaker 1: pine birch and rhododendron. A. Stoner's advanced party made the 379 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:37,200 Speaker 1: camp ready for the main group. They were soon approached 380 00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:40,160 Speaker 1: by another man who told them that he and his 381 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:45,800 Speaker 1: wife had encountered a YETI just the previous autumn. Stoner 382 00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:50,200 Speaker 1: sat and wrapped as his sherper assistant translated the man's 383 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:53,680 Speaker 1: words for him, and as he told him about the 384 00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:57,120 Speaker 1: creature that had apparently jumped out at him while he 385 00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:02,400 Speaker 1: was collecting herbs. Stoner gave out to the vast snowpeaked 386 00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:07,640 Speaker 1: mountains that surrounded them on all sides and dared to dream. 387 00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:13,520 Speaker 1: The stage was set for the arrival of the main expedition. 388 00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:22,280 Speaker 1: You've been listening to Unexplained Season seven, episode eight, Walking 389 00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:27,080 Speaker 1: on Snow, Part one, the second and final part, will 390 00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:33,240 Speaker 1: be released next week on Friday, October twenty seventh. This 391 00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:37,400 Speaker 1: episode was written by Diane Hope and produced by Richard 392 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:43,080 Speaker 1: McClain smith. Unexplained as an Avy Club Productions podcast created 393 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,760 Speaker 1: by Richard McClain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, 394 00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:52,719 Speaker 1: including the music, are also produced by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. 395 00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:56,120 Speaker 1: The book and audiobook, with stories never before featured on 396 00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:59,760 Speaker 1: the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can 397 00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:04,480 Speaker 1: per from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores. 398 00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:08,200 Speaker 1: Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get 399 00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:11,000 Speaker 1: your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with 400 00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:14,440 Speaker 1: any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on 401 00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:17,240 Speaker 1: the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own 402 00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:20,000 Speaker 1: you'd like to share. You can find out more at 403 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:24,120 Speaker 1: Unexplained podcast dot com and reach us online through Twitter 404 00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:28,880 Speaker 1: at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com, Forward 405 00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:32,840 Speaker 1: Slash Unexplained Podcast