Abominable Snowman

In “Among the Himalayas (1899)” by Laurence Waddell, the author tells of his expedition to the Himalayas, and in Chapter 5 briefly mentions finding large footprints in the snow leading to the higher peaks. He comments that these were believed to be “the trail of the hairy wild men” by the natives and that “the belief in these creatures is universal among Tibetans.” He states that when asking the Tibetans about this subject he couldn’t get an authentic case and that “on the most superficial investigation it always resolved itself into something that somebody heard tell of.” Being rather unimpressed by the footprint and the story, Laurence Waddell asserts that “these so-called hairy wild men are evidently the great yellow snow-bear (Ursus isabellinus).” He is referring to the Himalayan brown bear.

In 1921, Charles Howard-Bury went on an expedition to the Himalayas. While there he reportedly came upon tracks in the snow that looked like human footprints. The Himalayan natives told him that it must be “The Wild Man of the Snows” and, according to Charles Howard-Bury, they used the words “Metoh-kangmi.” These word “Metoh” reportedly translates in English to “man-bear” with “kangmi” reportedly meaning “snowman.” The famous term “Abominable Snowman” was a mistranslation coined by the newspress in 1921, who popularized the story of Charles Howard-Bury finding the footprints. The word “Metoh” was mistranslated by newspress as meaning “filthy” or “abominable.”

In Chapter 8 of the book on his expedition, “Mount Everest The Reconnaissance (1921),” Charles includes a brief mention of the footprints and comments that it “interested the newspapers so much.” He states: “On my return to civilised countries I read with interest delightful accounts of the ways and customs of this wild man whom we were supposed to have met. ” While finding the newpress hype around the event to be amusing, Charles Howard-Bury himself was seemingly unimpressed by the footprints themselves, stating they were most likely caused by a loping grey wolf double-stepping. He comments that the “Wild Man of the Snows” is essentially a boogeyman or a fairy tale about “a hairy man who lives in the snows” meant to scare Tibetan children into good behavior. “To escape from him they must run down the hill, as then his long hair falls over his eyes and he is unable to see them. Many other such tales have they with which to strike terror into the hearts of bad boys and girls.”

Both the 1899 and 1921 incidents are of expeditioners finding human-looking tracks, being told by the natives that it’s some kind of “Wild Man” and then the author dismissing this and assuming it was actually an ordinary animal such as a bear or a wolf track. Neither man seems particularly impressed and they only give these moments a brief mention in their books. In the case of the 1921 footprint, the newspress was much more interested and gave the incident much attention and speculation. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have actual firsthand information from natives of the Himalayas at the time, all we have is the brief and dismissive secondhand sources from western explorers. This is a shamefully common thing within classic anthropology. Note that in these early cases the Abominable Snowmen described as either “Wild Men” (a classic archetype for supposedly feral humans) or according to translation as “Man-Bear” (essentially meaning bear-like) and “Snowmen.” According to these sources at least, they are not described as ape-like at all yet. The bipedal ape-like depiction would later become the famous look of the Abominable Snowman in western art.

The Abominable Snowman Craze of the 1950s:

In 1951, Eric Shipton’s supposed Yeti Footprint Photo – Himalayas.

1953 – The Daily Mail’s Expedition to the Himalayas to look for Abominable Snowmen.

In November 1953, after purportedly being interested by a radio broadcast about the popular Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas expedition, Rene Dahinden discovered from his employer, dairy farmer Wilbur Willich, the concept of British Columbia’s Sasquatch and became a dedicated field researcher.

1954 – The Daily Mail’s 2nd Expedition to the Himalayas to look for ABSM.

1955: “Half Human (1955)” Fiction Film about Yeti. (This film inspired a young future-researcher Loren Coleman’s interest in Yeti.) 

1957 – Peter Byrne’s Expedition to the Himalayas to look for ABSM, funded by Texan oilman Tom Slick.

December 9th 1964 – Fictional “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” TV Christmas Special – First Aired on NBC Network (Features the Abominable Snowman – Incorrectly with white fur, original ABSM lore had brown fur.)

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