September 25, 2006

Thirteen Years Ago…and Big Grey Man

Climbing mountains has all kinds of hazards. On September 25, 1993, while free climbing, after carelessly slipping on some loose talus, I fell straight back 40 feet from a cliff onto some boulders on the ground. Simply put, I broke my back.

Life has never been quite the same. Definitely for me, there is more deep appreciation every moment for my sons and my life, despite the struggles that have ensued in recent years financially.

As it turned out, I burst my Lumbar 1. I survive today thanks to my will to live, plus medical scientists who reconstructed my now fused-vertebrae. Perhaps it was my luck coming from the fact I was wearing a Yeti tee-shirt too?

Anyway, the point is that there are all kinds of dangers for humans when climbing cliffs, hills, and mountains. Some might even be cryptozoological. Take for instance, Ben MacDhui.

Big Grey Man

The above is Harry Trumbore’s drawing of the Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui in The Field Guide of Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates.

At 4,296 feet, Ben MacDhui is the tallest peak in the Cairngorm Mountain range in central Scotland. The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui, a large giant sighted in the 1890s-1950s, has become a legendary figure in the mountains.

Big Grey Man

A new short film, The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui concentrates, apparently, on the high attitude rationalizations one hears for such stories – light playing games in mists, the effects of lack of oxygen on the brain, and other mundane explanations. But the ferla mohr, the long-legged, slightly pointed-eared, and sharp-nailed hairy giant is always in the background.

The 15 minute film is showing at the George Square Lecture Theatre, Edinburgh at 11:00 am on Saturday, October 21, 2006, as part of the 4th Annual Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival 2006.

Enjoy it. And you won’t have to climb any mountains to view it!

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.

Filed under Breaking News, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoology