INTRODUCTION people known as the Sherpas traditionally have treated the Himalayas the mountains where they live as sacred They have built Buddhist monasteries at the mountains base placing prayer flags on the slopes and establishing sanctuaries or safe spaces for the wildlife of the valleys For these reasons the Sherpas have shown the mountains great respect and for many years they would not climb them Mixed with their respect was a good amount of wonder and fear For one thing the Sherpas did not want to disturb or anger the gods and demons that were believed to live up in the high peaks Also keeping them away was a mysterious creature that supposedly roamed the mountains lower slopes the yeti or the so called Abominable Snowman A legendary creature the Abominable Snowman is said to live in the Himalayas above the snow line Although several attempts have been made to sight it the creature has so far proved elusive or hard to find A lack of credible evidence has not kept stories about
INTRODUCTION the yeti from being shared around the world Some peo ple insist that the creatureſ as well as other legendary beasts around the world exists while other people work to disprove or debunk the myths Regardless the search for the truth about the Abominable Snowman and other yeti like creatures continues PITTS Prayer flags strung near a Buddhist shrine in Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas There have been reported yeti sightings in the
CH A PTER ONE MAN BEAST OF THE FROZEN HEIGHTS tories about unusual animals were commonplace in earlier times Such animals are called legendary because they exist only in these stories or legends The stories were often based on travelers reports of ani mals that were unfamiliar to them Some famous legend ary animals include the dragon various sea serpents the unicorn and the phoenix Other legendary creatures resemble humans yet are not quite human Even today some people speak of hav ing seen these half human half animal creatures includ ing the yeti better known as the Abominable Snowman APPEARANCE The word abominable means hateful or strongly unpleas ant That term is applied to the yeti mainly because it 6
MAN BEAST OF THE FROZEN HEIGHTS is said to look very fierce and scary The creature is cov ered from head to toe in long messy fur Some people think that the creature is called a snow man because its fur is white However that assumption seems to be false People who claim to have seen it say that the fur is actually a red dish brown color So the yeti is called a snowman not because of its color but rather because of the weather conditions where it is believed to live Various stories have Drawing of a yeti With a human chest and given different measure body hair all over this image shows why yetis are called man beasts ments for how big and tall the Abominable Snowman is Everyone seems to agree however that the creature is at least six feet about two meters tall Some stories claim that it is two to four feet about a half meter to a little over a meter taller than that People who say they have seen the Abominable Snowman are able to guess at its height because appar ently the creature walks on two legs like a human Yet
