High in the Himalayas lurks a monster. A fearsome and rarely seen creature whose name has become legendary – the Yeti. Appearing first in Tibetan folklore, it was in the 1950s that stories of the Yeti, or ‘The Abominable Snowman’, quickly captured the public’s imagination. Thanks to accounts of half-glimpsed figures and of strange footprints in the snow, expeditions to capture the beast were launched by everyone from famous mountaineers such as Sir Edmund Hillary, to British tabloid The Daily Mail. In the decades since, the mysterious creature continues to fascinate us and has inspired animated children’s films, episodes of Doctor Who and even a Kate Bush song. In 2013 renowned naturalist and television presenter David Attenborough even went as far to state that he believed “the Abominable Snowman may be real.” And yet, we still seem no closer to locating the beast. But where do stories of the Yeti come from? And are they fiction… or might there be a grain of truth in them?
“THE ROOF OF THE WORLD”
Stories of the Yeti first appear to originate in Himalayan myth. Part of the mountainous region of High Asia, often referred to as “The Roof of the World”, for centuries the Himalayan mountains have fascinated mankind. Stretching across roughly five countries (Nepal, China, India, Pakistan and Bhutan) and 2,500km, the29,029 feet above sea level it is the highest mountain in the world. Due to their high elevation, the Himalayas have a foreboding landscape covered with ice and snow and with many of the highest areas inhospitable to humans.
