Updated Yeti Footcast News
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 3rd, 2007
Joshua Gates (R) displaying alleged footprint of Yeti.
Despite the fact that the new Yeti cast found by Joshua Gates closely mirrors the one he found in Johor, perhaps I was wrong about the first image floating out of Asia of it being a stock picture. I have confirmed that it sounds like it, indeed, is a different cast.
Neil Mandt of Mandt Brothers Productions who produced year one of “Destination Truth” but is no longer associated with the program just told me: “That’s definitely a new photo of a new cast. It is not a copy of the Johor cast. That is in my office in Los Angeles. I was in India at a the India International Film Festival for my movie when I learned of the new cast. I haven’t heard from Josh; I just know what I’ve read on the internet. It sounds like this cast was created there. Josh is scheduled to get back in town on Christmas eve. I’m sure I will hear from him then, if not before.”
Josh had been in email contact with me too, before he left, as I was scheduled to consult, post-production on the show.
I’ll keep you all up to date on what I learn.
Meanwhile, the AFP has published a rather skeptical article passing along vast amounts of bad data.
When in the world did you ever hear that Yetis only had four toes versus five? Or who is to say that Yetis are definitely bears?
I think the one that goes way over the top is the guy the following article quotes who says that those “people living in the high Himalayas believe in this strange creature called a Yeti but nobody has actually seen it.” Wow! Now that is an incredible piece of misinformation to be spreading.
Here’s most of what they are sharing:
Mountaineering and wildlife officials in Nepal said Monday they doubted whether footprints found by a United States team from a science fiction programme were those of a Yeti.
The host and crew from “Destination Truth” spent around a week in the foothills of Mount Everest and returned to the capital Kathmandu last week with claims that they had found footprints belonging to the legendary creature.
“The footprints may be from a Himalayan bear,” Ang Tshering Sherpa, the president of Nepal Mountaineering Association told AFP after looking at pictures of the prints.
“It is believed that Yetis have only four toes but the footprints recorded by the US team have five toes,” said Sherpa, whose father went unsuccessfully looking for the legendary beast in the 1950s.
The Yeti — described as massive half-human, half-ape-like creature — has captured the imagination of explorers and climbers in the Himalayas for generations.
Dozens of costly expeditions have taken place, none of which have proved the existence of the beast.
* * *
“Destination Truth” — which investigates the existence of mythical creatures — is being made for an American science fiction channel.
Host Joshua Gates told AFP Saturday that the programme would further investigate the footprints, which were found last week on the bank of the Manju River, 150 kilometres (94 miles) northeast of Kathmandu.
“The footprint is 13 inches (33 centimetres) long and the toes span nine inches (23 centimetres) across,” Gates told AFP at a hotel in Kathmandu.
“This is really an intriguing piece of evidence and we all feel a little bit unable to explain what we saw,” he said.
But Laxmi Manandhar, a spokesman at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, told AFP: “People living in the high Himalayas believe in this strange creature called a Yeti but nobody has actually seen it.
“The footprint castings brought by the US television crew are strange, but there is no supporting evidence to back up the claim that these are footprints of the Yeti.”“Experts in Nepal raise doubts over US ‘Yeti’ footprint claims” / AFP Source
Josh Gates is shown above with the Yeti footprint cast, dated December 1, 2007, from his Nepal expedition. Below is Josh Gates with the original Malaysia track cast from “Destination: Truth’s” season one Johor expedition of February 2006.
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.
Do you guys smell somethin’ funny?
Yes I do
smells like a wooden foot.
The odd proportions of either track are… ‘unusual’. For two tracks to be about the same depth, same overall shape, same ‘flatness’ (when one was supposed to be from a bank), same toe spread…
A wooden foot mold would be overkill. I think I could make this track in soft material with just a little digging- especially since neither shows a lot of detail in the actual foot area.
I don’t smell it.
I agree it’s a copy, but are you guys saying deliberate deception?
Maybe this just a lack of clarification on somebody’s part?
Loren is right. The API definitely went over the top in saying this could DEFINITELY be “bear”-related.
And I also agree that the statement that “nobody has seen it” is irresponsible, at the least.
I would say that API story has elements on it that makes one think of FOX NEWS—“WE REPORT, AND WE ALSO DECIDE.”
The “KINGS” of that type of reporting, BTW, are our old friends at the morning show, particularly Jon “The Smirk” Scott and Kelly “I Am Not A House You-Know-What” Wright. They have this aura to them of “If you don’t have physical evidence, don’t bother even discussing anything with us, OK?” I particularly remember Scott doing this with the producer of a documentary about UFOS some months ago.
(Sorry for the personal aside there, guys, but those folks “get” to me, ya know?)
MADKINS007 is right. A wooden foot is overkill. It COULD be a botched job, though.
I still don’t smell anything. Hey, maybe the December weather has pemanently stopped up my sinuses.
I guess it is also my perennial wish to “believe.”
Sorry.
And Loren—
I hate to be a “paranoid schmuck” here, and I guess I just don’t trust the media that much anymore, but I WOULD NOT BE SURPRISED if that “misinformation” (i.e., “nobody has seen it”)was DELIBERATE. The media nowadays (in MY opinion, OK?) wants to reassure people, not have them think. Not question. It goes back to FOX NEWS; or that CBS reporter last year (remember?) who deliberately tried to put “trip-up” questions to Scott Marlowe’s “Swamp Ape” witness Jennifer Ward, and so on and so on—it’s all part of the same ball of wax. I cannot believe that anybody who did even a smidgen of research on Yeti folklore and stories could fail to see that there WERE sightings in the record. So my cynical side would definitely rear up and say “These folks are trying to PLANT a narrative.” Not surprising from a media dominated by six companies.
Again, it’s my opinion.
I’ll descend from my soapbox and take my meds now.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
Good puzzle—I’ll give you that.
If Josh is joshing us, which I don’t think he is, but if he is there goes some more credibility for cryptozoologists in general. Not only that but if its proven to be a fake made by anyone from destination truth that tv show is going down the drain. Lets just hope the joshster is legit and not purposefully misleading us or straight out lying to us. Time will tell, or loren will. Just my two cents.
What do we make of the strange shape of the print, should this be found to be genuine, guys?
Was the creature walking down a cliff or something, putting the weight of the body on the phalanges and metatarsals, instead of placing the foot firmly on a leveled ground?
One would have to put a measuring tape on both of the prints, and compare the dimensions, in order to be certain of anything.
I’m not familiar with Yeti tracks. Do they normally show a prominent ‘footprint’ like you see with humans, bigfoot, etc? I would imagine there would be some adaptations for such a cold climate that would differentiate the anatomy from primates in less extreme areas.
The track does look a bit like snowshoes hehe
I find Josh Gates to be an honest fellow. Now, I could be 100% wrong, but it seems like people are jumping on him without knowing all the facts.
It’s understandable with all the phonies out there, but I really think Josh is sincere and I would hate to think he would travel all over the world to just make fake tracks.
I hope he has a chance to give his side of the story and I really look foward to his show Destination Truth. I find it very entertaining and I thoroughly enjoy it.
By the way, I am making a prediction that 2008 is the year of the Crytid. I am just making the prediction that 2008 is the year that some finally gets something amazing on video. There’s just too many people now searching and too many people with video cameras and cell phones with video capabilities. I am really excited and I can’t wait for the up coming year. Maybe Josh will be that guy!
loren & everyone i saw a new news segment yesterday morning on fox news channel about these yeti footprints it was a very interesting segment. im sure we will see more on news about these footprints or about sasquatch & the yeti. thanks bill green
Let me be very clear about my motives for my entries here lately.
I have not been running these series of postings on the Yeti track to claim any sort of fakery or hoaxing, but merely to clarify the situation as much as the data will allow.
I thought at first that there had been some mix-up in stock photos between the Johor cast and the Yeti cast. I was wrong about that, apparently.
I also consider that the Johor cast may not be the best evidence around for the Orang Dalam. And that if the new Yeti cast so coincidentially looks like the Johor cast, perhaps a re-examination of that cast needs to be undertaken.
But I do not think that Josh Gates has been involved in any overt or covert hoaxing, period.
“But I do not think that Josh Gates has been involved in any overt or covert hoaxing.”
I agree with Loren. It’s clear to me that Gates is sincere and probably really thinks he found something special… I am just amazed that he would make such bold claims based on one week’s search and an ambiguous print. Then again, he’s got a TV show to promote…
Well, comparing this track’s shape with every other cast I’ve seen that is allegedly from a yeti, I do find there is a definite discrepancy as to the apparent shape of the foot. These seem to differ fairly dramatically from other hairy hominid tracks, do they not? Is this another type of creature entirely? Are these misrepresentations of a known animal’s tracks or a foot shaped hole in the ground? How to explain the difference we see here, with those splayed out toes and relatively small heel? I’m with red_pill_junkie in that the shape of this print does not sit well with me. The Johor track’s shape never really has either. That’s not to say that these can’t be of a hominid, or that Mr. Gates is intentionally trying to hoax, but I am skeptical. I certainly do not think these are anything to be out making bold claims about.