(NP) - Yeti Quest Continues

[Guest guest]

The yeti quest continues.....seems the debate takes energy away from

protecting what is probably the real yeti, the endangered Brown Bear and

its Tibetan subspecies. Two such 'chemos' lead a sad existence in the Lhasa

Zoo.

 

The Himalayan Times Online

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/PrintStory.asp?filepath=aATaoanlaNaeaw2a/a2Ta0r\

a/Wa2a/yugaHaoZaea/aFWata0a0wxyedtxsvoIamal

 

Yeti footprints found at Khumbu, explorers claim

Kathmandu, November 30:

A team of explorers has arrived in the capital with an exciting story of

finding footprints of yeti near the base camp of Mount Everest, at Khumbu.

" We are happy to say that we have found footprints of yeti. And the snowman

is no more a legend for us now, " Joshua Gates, the team leader of the

expedition of the American television channel Destination Truth, told the

media today.

Showing the model of the footprint, collected at the site, he added that

some scientific research would continue in the US regarding its

authenticity and other phases of exploration for further studies.

The team, consisting of 9 Americans and 14 Nepalis, left Kathmandu on 24

November and arrived here today after competing the expedition. After

finding the footprints, they chartered a helicopter and directly flew back

to the capital.

He said that the team found the footprints when it was returning from

Khumbu by the confluence of Ghettekhola and Dudhkoshi rivers, near Monju

village at a height of 2,850 metres.

It was Tul Bahadur Rai, assistant guide of the team, who first spotted the

footprint by the riverbank.

" It was the night of November 28. I cried in excitement when I saw the

footprints. I called all the members and they took photographs and also

made a model of the footprint, after they were convinced that it indeed was

a footprint, " he told this daily.

He also said that one of the prints was around 12 inches long and others

were smaller because the ground was not even and the prints were not clear.

This is not the first time, footprints of yeti, a species of hairy,

humpbacked and dark giant biped ape, were found in Nepal's Himalayan

valleys. In 1925 a Greek photographer, NA Tombazi, claimed that he had

spotted an ape-like creature walking in the valley near Mt Everest. Another

noted explorer who claimed to have seen yeti was the father of Tenzing

Norgay Sherpa, the first person to climb Everest.

Similarly, British mountaineers Eric Shipton and Michael Ward found the

yeti footprints in 1951 near the border area.

Even Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, found giant

footprints on the way up the top of Mount Everest, in 1953.