1832 — B.H. Hodson,the
U.K. representative in Nepal, described a hirsute creature who reportedly had attacked his
servants. The natives called the beast "rakshas," which means "demon."
This was the first report of the Yeti made by a Westerner.
1889 — British army major L. A. Waddell found what he took to be large footprints in
the snow on a high peak northeast of Sikkin. His bearers told him that these
were the tracks of a man-like creature called Yeti, and that it was quite
likely to attack humans and carry then away as food.
1913 —
A group of Chinese hunters reportedly wounded and captured a
hairy man-like creature, that the locals soon named the
"snowman". This creature was supposedly kept captive in Patang
at Sinkiang province for a period of five months until it died.
It was described as having a black monkey-like face and large body
covered with silvery yellow hair several inches long; it's hands and feet
were man-like and the creature was incredibly strong.
1914 —
J. R. P. Gent, a British forestry officer stationed in
Sikkim,
wrote of discovering footprints of what must have been a huge and amazing
creature.
1921 — Members of a British expedition (led by Col. Howard-Bury)
climbing the north face of Mount Everest
sighted some dark figures moving around on a snowfield above them. When the explorers
reached the spot, at some 17,500 feet, the creatures were not there but had left behind
some huge, humanlike footprints in the snow.
1923 —
Major Alan Cameron, with the Everest Expedition of that year, observed a line of huge and dark creatures moving along a
cliff face high above the snowline. Pictures of the creatures' tracks were
taken two days later, when the expedition reached the area where they were
seen.
1925 — A
Greek photographer
and member of the Royal Geographical Society named N. A. Tombazi glimpsed a
creature he later described as "exactly like a human being, walking upright and
stopping occasionally to uproot or pull some dwarf rhododendron bushes." Tombazi, who
was at about 15,000 feet up in the mountains, later reached the spot where he sighted the
creature, only to also find some intriguing tracks in the snow.
1936 — An
expedition led by H. W. Tilman found strange footprints in the snow by the outer reaches
of the snowline on
the slopes approaching Mount Everest.
1937 — Returning from a campaign in Tibet, British
explorer Frank Smythe relayed several reports of strange hairy wildmen made
by the native Sherpas and Tibetans. He also claimed to have personally seen
tracks of the creature at the 14,000-foot level.
1938 —
The Yeti emerges as creatures of kindness and sympathy according to the
story of Captain d'Auvergne, the curator of the Victoria Memorial near
Chowringhee in Calcuta. The Captain claims that, injured while traveling
on his own in the Himalayas and threatened with snow-blindness and
exposure, he was saved from death by a 9 foot tall creature resembling a
pre-historic human which, after carrying him several miles to a cave, fed
and nursed him until he was able to make his way back home.
1942 — Slavomir Rawicz best selling book,
The
Long Walk, —
published in 1952, telling how he and six friends escaped from a Siberian
war camp and made their way to freedom in India by crossing the Himalayas
— describes an encounter with two 8 foot tall creatures somewhere
between
Bhutan
and
Sikkim.
According to Slavomir, he and his companions watched the outsized beasts
for over 2 hours, from a distance of 100 yards.
1948 — Norwegian uranium prospector Jan Frostis claimed
he was attacked by one of two Yetis he stumble upon near Zemu Gap, in Sikkim.
His shoulder was badly mangled and he required extensive medical treatment
to recover from his lesions.
1949 —
A Sherpa named Tenzing claimed to have seen playing in the snow near a monastery. This was the same Sherpa that shared the fame of Sir Edmund Hillary
in the first successful ascent of Mount Everest.
1950 — A
patch of skin and a mummified finger and thumb were found in the Himalayan mountains.
Zoologists
and anthropologists considered the fragments to be "almost human" and
"similar in some respects to that of Neanderthal man" even though they could not be
associated to any known living species.
1951 —
The Everest
Reconnaissance Expedition (organized to evaluate routes for an attempt to ascend Everest)
encountered fresh tracks at 18,000 feet. During the following months, several additional
sightings of Yeti tracks were reported.
1953 —
New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay spot giant footprints
during their conquest of Mount Everest.
1954 —
The London Daily Mail's financed expedition
(originally to hunt and catch a live Yeti) examined some supposedly 'authentic'
Yeti scalps, but determined that these were mostly fakes made out of from animal
skin; a small handful of them proved to be intriguing though, and zoologists were unable to
link them to any known animals. The expedition also found footprints and
droppings that, when analyzed, proved to contain both animal and vegetable matter.
1955 —
Frenchman Abbè Bordet followed three separate trails of footprints that belonged to an unknown creature.
1957 — Texas oilman Thomas Slick sponsors a Yeti hunt.
His expedition came back solely with reports made by Nepalese villagers that
five people had been killed by severe battering from Yeti over the
preceding four years.
1958 — An American scientist working in Katmandu (Nepal), Dr. Norman Dyrenfurth, reports to have explored
caves that were at some time inhabited by a type of "very low grade
of human or near human creatures", presenting documentation and
physical evidence in the form of hair samples, plaster casts of
footprints, and discarded food scraps. Also
in 1958 a Dr. Alexander Pronin reports seeing the creature
while he was in the Pamirs (a unique high mountain complex located primarily in Tajikistan).
1960-61 — The
Himalayan Scientific and Mountaineering Expedition also found some unusual tracks in the
snow.
1970 — After hearing a strange noise near Mount Annapurna in Nepal,
mountaineer Don Whillans tracks and watches a strange humanoid creature
for about twenty minutes through his binoculars before it lumbers away.
1978 — Lord Hunt photographed Yeti tracks.
1986 — Climber Reinhold Messner reported a close-up
sighting of an Yeti as it came into sight from behind a tree.
1992 — Julian Freeman-Attwood and two other men camping
at a secluded spot on a remote glacier in Mongolia reported finding an
unusual trail of heavy footprints one morning on the snow outside their tent,
definitely made by a creature larger and heavier than a human.
1998 — American climber Craig Calonica, on Mount Everest,
reported seeing a pair of yetis while coming down the mountain on its Chinese side.
Both had thick, shiny black fur, he said, and walked upright.
