First Yeti Expedition of 2009

Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 13th, 2009

Yeti by John Jacobsmeyer.

This just in…breaking news, on Tuesday, January 13, 2009, a group of explorers and cryptozoologists have embarked on a unique Yeti expedition.

Not since the time of Tom Slick, 50 years ago, has an active search and exploration design included the employment of helicopters. This is being done to speed the placing of the seekers and supplies deep in country. During the quest for the Yeti, such a plan will avoid weeks of trail walking and then trekking upwards into the mountains.

The Abominable Snowman by Bernard Heuvelmans.

History and MonsterQuest, the sponsors of the two-pronged expedition to separate areas, will be filming the search for later broadcast. The digital filming shall occur in the Himalayan mountains and valleys of Nepal, while the investigative team gathers Yeti evidence during their trip lasting from January 13th until the 27th.

The primary members of the expedition are:

Adam Davies

Kuniaki Yagihara

Ian Redmond

Besides camera and crew, the team will consist of British explorer and author of Extreme Expeditions Adam Davies, Japanese mountaineer and recent Yeti expedition leader Kuniaki Yagihara, and the chief consultant to the UN Great Apes Survival Project and Yeti hair analyst Ian Redmond.

To save time on trekking, the expedition will be using helicopters to get deep into the upper reaches of Nepal, quickly. The last time this was done with such grand fanfare was when Tom Slick’s expeditions used helicopters in 1957-1958, and the New York Times and New York American followed their progress! Despite claims that the Slick excursions were also spying missions for the CIA possibly having some foundation, the 2009 Yeti expedition is on a more mundane mission – to find the Snowman.

The 2009 team member, Kuniaki Yagihara, a well-known Japanese mountaineer, photographed footprints of an alleged Yeti (one shown on the left, compared with a human track on the right), near Mount Dhaulagiri, Nepal, in October 2008. The Japanese group said they spotted several footprints on the snow at an altitude of 14,500 feet (4,400 meters).

The above key illustrates: (1) a Neandertal hominid foot; (2) an alleged Yeti foot, modeled after the 1951 Shipton-Ward track photograph; (3) a gorilla foot; (4) a langur foot; (5) a Himalayan black bear forefoot; and (6) a Himalayan black bear hindfoot.

Of course, some caution does need to be maintained in identifying tracks in the snow as Yeti. The imprint found by the Japanese in October 2008, could be that of the Nepal Gray Langur (Semnopithecus schistaceus), a gray-furred monkey. More comparisons with all footprints found on the Japanese expedition need to occur.

Yoshiteru Takahashi (R) and Kuniaki Yagihara walk in Kathmandu, on October 21, 2008. The Japanese climbers, returning from western Nepal, told the media they had found footprints they think belonged to the Yeti.

Ian Redmond (above and below, with a captive chimp), who was most recently investigating the Yeti hair samples that turned out to be goral, is the founder and chairman of the Ape Alliance. He was appointed OBE in 2006, at the Queen’s Birthday Honours. His citation reads: Chairman, Ape Alliance, Co-founder Elefriends and UK Rhino Group. For services to conservation.

In his various consulting roles, Redmond has visited the 23 great ape range states in Africa and Asia, and worked with the world’s governments to ensure their involvement in great ape conservation.

Adam Davies (with jeep, below) is best known for his Orang Pendek expeditions to Sumatra, where he discovered foot tracks in 2001 (see above, with cast).

Davies’ “extreme expeditions” to various sites around the world, such as to the desert of Mongolia in search of Almas, have been featured on television documentaries.

On this 2009 Yeti Expedition, the locales being explored will include two primary areas: high mountain passes and the montane valley forests at 8,000 to 9,000 feet up. The latter is an environment comparative to where a mountain gorilla might live. Trailcams and expert local trackers will be used in the valleys. As to the former, a new form of innovative aerial technology will be used above the snowline, which at this point, confidentiality as to this operation will be maintained, until the cryptozoologists are on site or have returned.

Reportedly, members of the expedition will carry id-kit materials and one specific field-tested guide to be used with Sherpa guides, Nepalese porters, Tibetan visitors, and other locals to assist with the identification of the probable different types of Yeti that may have been encountered.

Cryptomundo wishes the team members the best of luck in their travels, treks, and tracking. Hopefully, they will bring back positive evidence of Abominable Snowmen.

The Year of the Yeti slowly emerges, over the snows of Nepal today. Stay tuned next month for more news from Bhutan.

Disclaimer:

Information contained in this breaking news story is accurate to the best of my knowledge, at posting time. This story was not sourced via any official release from History or MonsterQuest, nor has it been obtained via data from MonsterQuest’s production staff. However, while the sources must remain confidential for now, the reporting is accurate and worthy of sharing with the readership of Cryptomundo, as the initial phases of the Yeti 2009 expedition begins.

Also, any white Yeti images contained within this breaking news story are for popular cultural illustrative reasons only, as Cryptomundo firmly remains committed to the position that most Yetis are brownish-red to black.

Yeti TV by David Lowe.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.


9 Responses to “First Yeti Expedition of 2009”

  1. springheeledjack responds:

    Well, cool…now let’s hope they get somewhere. And you know, come back with something solid!

  2. Insanity responds:

    Quite awesome, wish them luck for both a safe and successful return.

  3. Texas_Grown responds:

    Wish them the best of luck. Maybe MonsterQuest will actually come back with something useful.

  4. PeterOtoole responds:

    Could MQ be pouring more money into expeditions? If so, I’m impressed.

  5. Rael responds:

    Nice, a 2 week expedition, I’ll definitely be watching this MQ.

  6. Lightning Orb responds:

    Agreed, hope they’re successful – and they can survive the wrath of the abominable. Dost thou really think thou canst defeat the mighty Yeti with little flying car on spinning stick? Looks like that’s what he’s saying in the first pic anyway

  7. DWA responds:

    With regard to white yetis: Let’s remember that white sasquatch have been reported, quite a few actually.

    Let’s also remember that the “black” bear comes in brown, blue and white too.

    Although it’s understandable we don’t want to get carried away with the “snowman” thing, white ones wouldn’t surprise me excessively.

  8. bigbradwolf responds:

    Awesome, best of luck to everyone involved.

    PS Adam Davies is damn hot!

  9. almasROX responds:

    I think that they should at least try to get a fresh DNA sample from the thought to be Yeti footprint and compare it to a chimp and humans DNA and see if it really was the Yeti so they can track it easily.

Sorry. Comments have been closed.

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