Yeti footprints found in Everest region: US explorers

Inside the queue of Expedition Everest are a multitude of books, quotes, articles, and exhibits on the history and study of the yeti. All of the masks, prints, and displays have some basis in fact, such as an attack on a camp. Whether or not that attack was the handiwork of a yeti is all in the eye of the beholder. In 2007 Josh Gates, of the series ‘Destination Truth,’ and his crew went to Kathmandu in search of evidence of the yeti. The group was able to obtain three footprints, with the most complete of the three being donated to The Yeti Museum, otherwise known as Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Expedition Everest, in April of 2008.

In December of 2007, however, fresh off of the discovery, articles began to appear worldwide. Two such articles, one from The Himalayan Times and the other from The Rising Nepal, are on display in the same case as Josh Gates’ yeti print. Below is the complete article from The Rising Nepal, entitled "Yeti footprints found in Everest region: US explorers." The article, written by Prabalta Rijal, was published on 1 December 2007.

Kathmandu, Nov. 30: A team of US explorers have claimed that they had traced fresh footprints of Yeti, a mysterious snowman believed to inhabit the Himalayan mountains.

'Destination Truth', an American television crew on Tuesday said that they discovered fresh Yeti footprints on the bank of the Manju river in Solukhumbu district, northeast of Kathmandu.

The nine-member television crew that is touring the world in search of unsolved mysteries and phenomena came to Nepal in search of an ancient creature which, according to Himalayan folklore, is not only known as the protector of the mountains but is also feared. The Yeti according to folklore is believed to live in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and throughout history there have been claims of its sightings.

Tul Bahadur Rai, representative of Equator Expedition Nepal, which is the liaison of the American crew, found the foot marks near the river banks of the Manju river which according to the crew is a clear sequence of a six-feet stride prints embedded in the banks of the river. We found it around 11pm during our investigations, it looked like it was freshly made. We found those prints not long after it was made," said Rai.

According to Josh Gates of 'Destination Truth', they started their investigation in accordance to the common folklore and started looking in places where the locals claimed it had been sighted.

To date its sightings have been in regions of the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet which is not too high up in the glacier nor too down below where there are human settlements but in areas where there is a lot of vegetation cover," he said.

The crew said the footprints were found away from the usual trekking trail and half-an-hour away from the nearest village at an altitude of approximately 2,850 meters.

Brad Kulham, the show's executive producer, stated that this sighting was unique because they were able to document the events as they took place. We are extremely excited about this sighting because we were able to document each step of the finding from the initial sighting of the prints to the casting of the prints to safely bring it back," he said.

He further stated that the Yeti footprint is just over a foot long with a toe span of over an inch and this is the first time the findings have been catalogued this way.

The crew used infra-red cameras, night vision opticals and thermal scopes for the investigation to ensure the proper documentation of their finding and are hoping to air this finding as the first chronicle of their second season very soon.