1 00:00:00,595 --> 00:00:08,436 From the beginning of his time on earth, man has always been fascinated by monsters, real or imagined. 2 00:00:09,237 --> 00:00:15,798 One enduring modern legend tells of creatures similar to man, walking upright, covered with hair, 3 00:00:16,238 --> 00:00:18,238 beast-like in character. 4 00:00:18,718 --> 00:00:25,360 Many believe they are real and exist today in the remote corners of the world where they have been driven by encroaching 5 00:00:26,080 --> 00:00:28,080 civilization. 6 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:31,861 They were first known as the Abominable Snowmen. 7 00:00:43,883 --> 00:00:51,244 He has spent the last 20 years of his life searching for a creature so elusive that few have ever seen its tracks and 8 00:00:51,644 --> 00:00:54,005 even fewer the creature itself. 9 00:00:58,086 --> 00:01:01,206 Don't waste your time, and move forward along the line. 10 00:01:01,206 --> 00:01:30,012 Peter Byrne believes he has come close to the creature on more than one occasion. 11 00:01:30,012 --> 00:01:38,413 He has never actually seen the sure-footed beast that has been glimpsed in primitive 12 00:01:38,413 --> 00:01:45,454 surroundings. But as civilization pushes deeper into the wilderness, Byrne believes a confrontation 13 00:01:45,454 --> 00:01:58,097 with man is inevitable. The civilized world first became aware of such creatures when stories 14 00:01:58,097 --> 00:02:06,178 began to drift back from travelers in the remote Himalayas. As early as 1857, giant footprints 15 00:02:06,178 --> 00:02:16,380 were spotted. In 1906, a man-like creature walking upright on two legs was seen in Sikkim by English 16 00:02:16,380 --> 00:02:23,941 explorer H.J. Ellwes. But the subject was not taken seriously until a group of British climbers 17 00:02:23,941 --> 00:02:29,302 attempted to be the first to reach the top of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. 18 00:02:33,463 --> 00:02:39,224 In 1953, Queen Elizabeth's coronation in London was matched by news that Edmund 19 00:02:39,224 --> 00:02:45,706 Hillary's expedition led by Colonel John Hunt had reached the summit of Mount Everest. Later, 20 00:02:46,266 --> 00:02:51,867 headlines stated that the expedition had cited footprints of some enormous two-footed creature 21 00:02:51,947 --> 00:02:58,428 and sent back photographs to prove it. The world was fascinated. The creature was dubbed the Abominable 22 00:02:58,428 --> 00:03:09,550 Snowman and he became a household word. In 1953, Peter Byrne was one of those who heard the stories 23 00:03:09,550 --> 00:03:14,591 and was attracted to the subject. He made his first trek into the Himalayas. 24 00:03:16,591 --> 00:03:21,472 To be involved in the hunt, he had to abandon one career to begin another. 25 00:03:22,432 --> 00:03:27,953 He left the Royal Air Force and worked in Darjeeling, Northern India. 26 00:03:28,994 --> 00:03:33,954 When I was there, I became interested in big-game hunting, tiger, leopard, buffalo. 27 00:03:35,635 --> 00:03:39,395 Then we hunted in the dense jungles that run along the edge of the Himalayan foothills. 28 00:03:40,196 --> 00:03:47,317 Then, in 1968, he stopped. He simply did not want to destroy beautiful animals 29 00:03:47,317 --> 00:03:53,478 just to put them on a wall as a trophy. I left hunting and went into conservation, 30 00:03:53,478 --> 00:03:57,559 wildlife conservation. I could never kill again. 31 00:04:00,919 --> 00:04:06,280 Because of his expertise in tracking animals, he was a natural choice to lead the first 32 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:13,082 scientific search for the Abominable Snowman, an expedition financed by Texas oil millionaire 33 00:04:13,082 --> 00:04:20,603 Tom Slick. Slick was killed in a plane crash, but by that time, Byrne had caught the snowman 34 00:04:20,603 --> 00:04:29,885 fever and has devoted his life to the search. This is the greatest hunt that anyone could ever go on, 35 00:04:29,885 --> 00:04:37,966 a mysterious creature, elusive, shy, nocturnal, living in an enormous area of extremely difficult 36 00:04:37,966 --> 00:04:45,088 terrain. It's a near impossible dream to see one of these creatures who would be like 37 00:04:45,088 --> 00:04:51,249 meeting a man, stepping out of the primeval world, a prehistoric being. It would be like 38 00:04:51,249 --> 00:04:55,169 reaching back into the past. This is what keeps me going. This is the sparrow. 39 00:05:00,931 --> 00:05:05,651 The search has taken him into some of the most spectacular scenic areas of the world, 40 00:05:06,211 --> 00:05:11,813 to breathtaking vistas of natural beauty. They alone make the search worthwhile. 41 00:05:13,173 --> 00:05:20,454 It is here that Byrne believes the man beast will be found, here in the Himalayas, at the very roof 42 00:05:20,454 --> 00:05:35,577 of the world, Mount Everest itself. Many believe the Abominable Snowman originated in Nepal and 43 00:05:35,577 --> 00:05:42,938 Tibet, migrated northwest into China, and eventually crossed over the frozen Bering Straits into Alaska, 44 00:05:43,578 --> 00:05:50,620 continuing down into the Pacific Northwest. In the Museum of the University of British Columbia, 45 00:05:50,620 --> 00:05:56,141 Peter studies American Indian legends which tell of a similar creature the Indians call 46 00:05:56,141 --> 00:06:04,142 Sasquatch, the same man beast called Bigfoot today. The Indians had no doubt he existed, 47 00:06:04,222 --> 00:06:09,183 and as they did with all living things, they treated Sasquatch with respect. 48 00:06:11,664 --> 00:06:18,225 Prakritotum symbolized the Indians' deep reverence for nature. They accorded to all living things 49 00:06:18,225 --> 00:06:26,466 a divine spirit. There has always been a reverence for life. To them, the Sasquatch was no imagined 50 00:06:26,466 --> 00:06:32,627 demon. If we are to convince modern science that the man beast exists, we must learn how it lives 51 00:06:32,627 --> 00:06:39,749 and where it hides. Peter's search next takes him to London, which has always been a center for 52 00:06:39,749 --> 00:06:45,830 Abominable Snowman study because of England's close association with India and the Himalayas. 53 00:06:46,790 --> 00:06:52,151 He has come to hear first-hand stories from a group of highly respected scientists and mountain 54 00:06:52,151 --> 00:07:00,073 experts including John Hunt, now Lord Hunt, leader of the 1953 expedition, Dr. Michael Ward, 55 00:07:00,553 --> 00:07:06,234 physician to the original climb, and a world-leading mountain climber, Don Willings. 56 00:07:06,234 --> 00:07:13,835 A round robin of their stories is fascinating. First time I remember having seen the tracks of the 57 00:07:13,835 --> 00:07:19,516 80 was before the war, and this, Mike, I think you'd agree that at that time nobody was particularly 58 00:07:19,516 --> 00:07:27,838 interested commercially in the 30s. In 1937, when I was on a very small expedition up the Zemul 59 00:07:28,318 --> 00:07:32,399 under the east face of country Junger, it was interesting because these tracks were heading 60 00:07:32,399 --> 00:07:39,760 for a very high and quite difficult to reach, call the Zemulard, about 19,500 feet. And there were 61 00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:45,921 two tracks side by side. When we got to the top of the call, the extraordinary thing was, it was a 62 00:07:45,921 --> 00:07:52,402 knife edge of ice, quite reasonable slope on one side, but it was a nice cliff on the other, 63 00:07:52,402 --> 00:07:56,883 that the tracks were visible below us on the steep side, on the south side, 64 00:07:56,883 --> 00:08:03,364 and the creatures, whatever they were, had crossed the car. So that was the first time I had evidence 65 00:08:03,364 --> 00:08:08,645 of that, and the supporting evidence was that only a year later, Bill Tillman was in that area, 66 00:08:09,445 --> 00:08:15,927 not knowing about the evidence I'd produced or what I'd seen, he saw exactly the same thing, 67 00:08:15,927 --> 00:08:21,208 except that it was one single pair of tracks going on the same route in the same direction, 68 00:08:21,208 --> 00:08:28,889 and crossing the car. I spent nine months in the Himalaya from September to through to June 69 00:08:30,249 --> 00:08:36,650 at, in the Everest region at 19,000 feet, doing medical research, and during this period we came 70 00:08:36,650 --> 00:08:43,852 across two lots of tracks. In the center of the tracks, attributable to the Yeti, there were 71 00:08:43,852 --> 00:08:49,613 another series of footprints which are very much more obvious with my ice axe, beside my ice axe 72 00:08:49,613 --> 00:08:54,894 approximately 12 to 14 inches long, and you can see the footprints are very clearly etched in the 73 00:08:54,894 --> 00:08:59,935 snow. We followed these for about a hundred yards down the glacier, but we could see them 74 00:08:59,935 --> 00:09:07,456 continuing on into the distance. Lord Hunt will always remember another incident. In 1953, 75 00:09:07,456 --> 00:09:11,217 while we were training, before we went to the foot of Everest to climb the mountain, 76 00:09:11,217 --> 00:09:18,978 and this was a training camp at about 17,000 feet, heard a wailing cry across the glacier 77 00:09:19,058 --> 00:09:24,339 at half a mile away. In fact, a series of sort of yelping calls, long drawn out, wonder what 78 00:09:24,339 --> 00:09:32,501 on earth they were. There's a long wailing, long drawn out call, and it was repeated. 79 00:09:35,861 --> 00:09:37,622 Possibly something like a peacock. 80 00:09:41,302 --> 00:09:45,383 From all of his research, both in the Himalayas and the Pacific Northwest, 81 00:09:45,943 --> 00:09:51,624 Peter has gained a clear picture of the snowman, a composite of its appearance and habits. 82 00:09:53,145 --> 00:09:57,705 Imprints left on the ground give me a view of its stride, its enormous sloping gate. 83 00:09:58,826 --> 00:10:04,667 The stride averages from 40 to 50 inches. From the depth of the footprints, I know it's a heavy 84 00:10:04,667 --> 00:10:10,508 creature, more than 300 pounds, and it's extremely agile, jumping mountain cabrasses with ease. 85 00:10:10,908 --> 00:10:17,549 For all its great physical strength, it appears to be shy and docile, eating small rodents, roots, 86 00:10:17,549 --> 00:10:24,750 and berries. But there is no record that it has ever harmed a single man. In search of, 87 00:10:24,750 --> 00:10:31,232 we'll next go with Peter Byrne to Nepal, where he hopes to find absolute proof that the snowman 88 00:10:31,712 --> 00:10:39,153 exists. The people who live in the villages of the Himalaya Mountains are called Sherpa. 89 00:10:39,953 --> 00:10:45,714 Despite their shy, mild-mannered ways, these people are capable of rugged climbs with 90 00:10:45,714 --> 00:10:50,995 incredibly heavy pack loads. They form the backbone of any expedition, 91 00:10:50,995 --> 00:10:55,316 including the successful assault on Everest in 1953. 92 00:10:56,276 --> 00:11:02,837 The Sherpa are not the doubters and skeptics that western men are. Sherpa legends accept the fact 93 00:11:02,837 --> 00:11:11,479 that a huge, hairy creature lives among them. They call him the Yeti. To us, he is the abominable snowman. 94 00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:22,361 The melting snows of the Himalayas turn the rivers of Nepal into raging, 95 00:11:22,361 --> 00:11:29,402 torrents. Peter Byrne often takes advantage of their swift transportation in his search for the snowman. 96 00:11:31,403 --> 00:11:36,604 The quest has drawn me to perilous but exhilarating places, running the great rivers of the Nepal 97 00:11:36,604 --> 00:11:42,765 Himalaya, probably the most dangerous rivers in the world. I have been waiting for two weeks for a 98 00:11:42,765 --> 00:11:48,046 most important message, permission for an interview with the holy lama of Bodhna. 99 00:11:48,686 --> 00:11:53,407 As the messenger made his way to reach us in this incredible world of isolated and rugged beauty, 100 00:11:53,407 --> 00:12:00,208 I thought how lucky I was. Bigfoot, Sasquatch, the Yeti, or abominable snowman, call it what you may. 101 00:12:00,208 --> 00:12:04,849 It has given me times of sheer frustration, but there are also moments of hope. 102 00:12:19,012 --> 00:12:21,972 Right. Got a hold of that mill? 103 00:12:21,972 --> 00:12:28,773 The old lama, Rimbu Chichini Lama, high priest of the Buddhist temple at Bodhna, has granted me an audience. 104 00:12:39,975 --> 00:12:46,937 Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, is one of the few cities of the ancient world unspoiled by tourists. 105 00:12:47,817 --> 00:12:52,138 Off regular plane routes, it looks as if it has been frozen in time. 106 00:12:55,498 --> 00:12:59,659 But under its calm exterior, a world of intrigue flourishes. 107 00:13:00,459 --> 00:13:06,060 Sharing its high mountain borders with red china, it is one of the very few windows to that world. 108 00:13:06,620 --> 00:13:11,501 Agents and spies from many countries jostle each other in the marketplace, 109 00:13:11,501 --> 00:13:14,942 with more spies here than in most other cities in the world. 110 00:13:15,902 --> 00:13:18,462 Peter Byrne is not concerned with the present. 111 00:13:18,462 --> 00:13:24,224 Rather, he has come to Kathmandu seeking a dramatic link with man's distant past. 112 00:13:24,224 --> 00:13:29,585 I was looking for eye witness accounts of Yeti sightings. I hope the Rimbu Chichini could help. 113 00:13:31,505 --> 00:13:38,226 The holy lama I was told knew of the Yeti at first hand, and could provide new clues for me to follow in my search. 114 00:13:39,186 --> 00:13:41,187 And as you know, I have been looking for the Yeti. 115 00:13:41,987 --> 00:13:43,187 But could not get it now. 116 00:13:43,427 --> 00:13:44,387 Could not find. 117 00:13:44,387 --> 00:13:46,948 You think there might still be a Yeti there? 118 00:13:46,948 --> 00:13:54,789 Maybe possibly, yes. Sometimes they come down to destroy all the feel of God and feel, 119 00:13:55,429 --> 00:13:58,550 and feed feel, potatoes feel. 120 00:13:58,550 --> 00:13:59,590 They come down to destroy the entire... 121 00:13:59,590 --> 00:14:01,030 They come down and destroy. 122 00:14:01,030 --> 00:14:02,151 And frighten the villagers. 123 00:14:02,151 --> 00:14:03,031 Yes. 124 00:14:03,031 --> 00:14:09,432 This piece of bone that you showed me, this is a Yeti, a piece of Yeti bone. 125 00:14:09,432 --> 00:14:10,632 How old would you say this was? 126 00:14:11,192 --> 00:14:12,552 About 50 years back. 127 00:14:13,033 --> 00:14:14,153 50 years back, I see. 128 00:14:14,153 --> 00:14:18,714 It's very thick, and it has a peculiar ridge on the top here. 129 00:14:18,714 --> 00:14:20,794 I must admit, I've never seen anything like this before. 130 00:14:21,434 --> 00:14:23,515 And where did it come from? Which place? 131 00:14:24,075 --> 00:14:27,675 This is the come from Jarmu. 132 00:14:29,516 --> 00:14:33,516 Following the lead of the lama, Peter moves up into the Himalayas. 133 00:14:34,397 --> 00:14:36,477 His guides will be the loyal Sherpa. 134 00:14:37,517 --> 00:14:40,478 At these heights, the weather can close in for days, 135 00:14:40,478 --> 00:14:43,198 and the temperature dropped to sub-zero degrees. 136 00:14:44,078 --> 00:14:50,079 One feels cut off in an isolated world of beauty and danger, where time is meaningless, 137 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:55,440 where it is easy to believe the incredible tales the Sherpa calmly tell. 138 00:14:57,601 --> 00:15:01,842 On my last Yeti expedition to Nepal, I had seen several sets of tracks 139 00:15:01,842 --> 00:15:03,762 and heard incredible stories of sightings. 140 00:15:05,202 --> 00:15:09,523 This year, I had set out with my Sherpa guides to investigate those stories 141 00:15:09,603 --> 00:15:14,724 and relive some of the experiences in the exact location where they said they had heard a Yeti. 142 00:15:15,764 --> 00:15:18,885 Peter's guides have not seen a Yeti themselves, 143 00:15:18,885 --> 00:15:22,165 but they feel they have been close to the creature many times. 144 00:15:23,446 --> 00:15:28,807 As he listens to their stories, Peter will have to differentiate between legend and fact 145 00:15:29,607 --> 00:15:33,687 to divine the line between imagination and reality. 146 00:15:35,208 --> 00:15:37,768 The oldest Sherpa told an eerie tale. 147 00:15:37,768 --> 00:15:40,649 It was a winter afternoon, he said. 148 00:15:41,449 --> 00:15:44,009 Two of us were returning from the Tibetan border, 149 00:15:45,450 --> 00:15:49,930 and on the last stage of our journey, a storm forced us to camp in a deserted cave. 150 00:15:50,571 --> 00:15:54,011 We made our way deep inside where it would be warmer. 151 00:15:54,011 --> 00:16:12,255 And we heard what we thought was someone calling out and coming in our direction. 152 00:16:24,817 --> 00:16:36,979 Peter's guides tell him they saw huge footprints around the mouth of their cave, 153 00:16:36,979 --> 00:16:39,620 but happily no sign of the creature itself. 154 00:16:42,980 --> 00:16:44,901 Peter continues his own search. 155 00:16:47,461 --> 00:16:51,142 The next morning in the fresh snow, we saw a set of newly made tracks 156 00:16:51,142 --> 00:16:52,822 of a creature walking on two legs. 157 00:16:54,102 --> 00:17:03,864 As Peter leaves the Himalayas and his Sherpa companions, 158 00:17:03,864 --> 00:17:07,545 he continues to believe more than ever that the snowman exists. 159 00:17:08,665 --> 00:17:12,026 His plane rises from the highest airstrip in the world. 160 00:17:13,066 --> 00:17:16,587 Peter looks down on a world so vast and so remote, 161 00:17:16,587 --> 00:17:21,707 that indeed it does seem possible for a rare species to remain hidden, 162 00:17:21,707 --> 00:17:24,268 unseen by man for centuries. 163 00:17:24,988 --> 00:17:26,348 I believe in the man beast. 164 00:17:26,908 --> 00:17:30,909 There's historical evidence, there's the enormous habitat that can feed, 165 00:17:30,909 --> 00:17:36,590 support, hide them, and there's the very, very good evidence of the continuing eye-witness reports. 166 00:17:40,751 --> 00:17:46,112 The most compelling evidence Peter has ever heard is from mountain climber Don Willens. 167 00:17:47,072 --> 00:17:52,113 Willens recounts what he saw in the Himalayas in 1968. 168 00:17:52,113 --> 00:17:56,594 During the night, I got to thinking about this creature because 169 00:17:57,954 --> 00:18:03,555 this seems to be some kind of an atmosphere. Certainly the Sherpas had gone very quiet. 170 00:18:07,236 --> 00:18:12,597 I say there was this feeling around that sort of feeling of being watched in some way. 171 00:18:16,518 --> 00:18:22,119 I had a feeling that whatever it was was still around. I felt that quite definitely. 172 00:18:26,679 --> 00:18:32,281 You get used to any climber lots. You get very used to trying to pick out small dots of people 173 00:18:32,281 --> 00:18:38,282 against the mountain side. And very often what you think is people are rocks and very often, 174 00:18:38,282 --> 00:18:43,803 you know, what you think is rocks because they don't move when you want them to, turn out to be people. 175 00:18:44,683 --> 00:18:51,564 And I thought, well, I'll just, I'll note the position of all the dark parts. It could be rocks. 176 00:18:51,564 --> 00:18:55,485 And I'll just see if any of them move no matter how slowly. 177 00:18:56,365 --> 00:19:00,846 Anyway, I was just beginning to get a little bit cold and I thought, oh, well, you've imagined it all. 178 00:19:02,206 --> 00:19:05,887 When suddenly I was sure the position of one of these rocks had moved. 179 00:19:06,847 --> 00:19:12,848 So I watched for a couple of minutes and then suddenly I saw they drop. Definitely 180 00:19:12,928 --> 00:19:14,688 moving. It started bounding up the slope. 181 00:19:19,489 --> 00:19:21,410 And that was the last I saw of it. 182 00:19:25,650 --> 00:19:30,371 Because people come up with all kinds of suggestions about why didn't you set up a camp and follow 183 00:19:30,371 --> 00:19:40,773 it. Absolutely ludicrous. And then they say, well, couldn't you take a gun up and shot it? 184 00:19:40,773 --> 00:19:45,334 My own personal feeling, which I'm sure wouldn't be shared by a gay 185 00:19:45,334 --> 00:19:51,575 month or a fellow that worked in an avatar is that if I did it, it would be murder. 186 00:19:53,416 --> 00:19:59,257 If this creature had survived for hundreds of thousands of years, it would not go around shooting it. 187 00:20:00,457 --> 00:20:04,218 My feeling was the best thought may view survived up here. 188 00:20:04,938 --> 00:20:08,378 And I've had the look to see perhaps something of you. 189 00:20:08,938 --> 00:20:16,380 I for one felt quite happy that it was Doff doing its own thing because this is something that's 190 00:20:16,380 --> 00:20:31,583 very difficult to do in this day and age. Just before completing this episode of In Search of, 191 00:20:31,583 --> 00:20:37,344 we spoke by telephone with Lord Hunt in London. He had just returned from the Himalayas, 192 00:20:37,344 --> 00:20:41,104 where a reunion was held of the original members of the Mount Everest climb. 193 00:20:42,225 --> 00:20:47,826 One night during that reunion, while camped near Mount Everest, each member of the group 194 00:20:47,826 --> 00:20:54,227 was awakened by cries outside their hut. This cover of the English Geographical 195 00:20:54,227 --> 00:21:00,308 Magazine shows us what they discovered in the morning. Clear tracks of some huge two-footed 196 00:21:00,308 --> 00:21:07,109 creature were found nearby. Lord Hunt photographed those tracks. And this is one of those photographs. 197 00:21:07,349 --> 00:21:13,750 After more than a quarter century, new evidence of the abominable snowman.