Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231153201
- eISBN:
- 9780231526814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231153201.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines the Yeti of the Himalayas. The name Yeti is the mispronunciation of the Sherpa name for the creature, Yeh-teh (animal of rocky places), or possibly a derivation of Meh-teh ...
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This chapter examines the Yeti of the Himalayas. The name Yeti is the mispronunciation of the Sherpa name for the creature, Yeh-teh (animal of rocky places), or possibly a derivation of Meh-teh (man-bear). The odd and inappropriate name Abominable Snowman originally derived from the Everest Reconnaissance Expedition led by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Howard-Bury in 1921, which was one of the first groups to scout a route for an attempt to climb Mount Everest. Ascending past 20,000 feet of elevation, Howard-Bury and his team were surprised to find tracks in the snow that looked like a human foot. Their Sherpa guides “at once jumped to the conclusion” that it “was the track of a wild, hairy man, and that these men were occasionally to be found in the wildest and most inaccessible mountains.”Less
This chapter examines the Yeti of the Himalayas. The name Yeti is the mispronunciation of the Sherpa name for the creature, Yeh-teh (animal of rocky places), or possibly a derivation of Meh-teh (man-bear). The odd and inappropriate name Abominable Snowman originally derived from the Everest Reconnaissance Expedition led by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Howard-Bury in 1921, which was one of the first groups to scout a route for an attempt to climb Mount Everest. Ascending past 20,000 feet of elevation, Howard-Bury and his team were surprised to find tracks in the snow that looked like a human foot. Their Sherpa guides “at once jumped to the conclusion” that it “was the track of a wild, hairy man, and that these men were occasionally to be found in the wildest and most inaccessible mountains.”
