YEAR: 1977

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: 10/15/77

STATE: (International)

LOCATION DETAILS: At the base of Langtang Lirung is a valley where the trail is. I climbed up a 'hill' in the middle of a basin, looking directly across to the 25,000 ft. peak of Langtang Lirung.

NEAREST TOWN: North/Central Nepal

NEAREST ROAD: N/A

OBSERVED: This report is so old I doubt that it may be of any use. When I was 16 years old I was backpacking alone in the north/central region of Nepal. So many tourist hikers try to get near Everest that I went to a region quite far from it and as remote as I could get to, which was the Langtang Lirung area. I didn't have a tent and took refuge from the cold with yak herders on occasion. One night near Chomki, I heard many long series of howls. I asked the Sherpa guy, through gestures, what the hell that is. And he said "Yeti", with the unremarkable exuberance that a resident of Arizona may have when hearing a coyote sound off.

Several days later I was on top of a little hill, looking down in all directions from about 20,000 ft. Below me was a glacier and from the thick brush, a huge, brownish-colored beast came out and climbed slowly across the glacier. This took about 5 minutes. It then went into the thick brush on the other side of the glacier. This was an extremely remote and rugged area. I would say that there was no possibility that it could have been a goliath-sized Sherpa, 20 miles away from any yak pasture, in a full-length beaver coat! I took a photo of it with my new camara I bought in Europe. I was not too adept with using it and, 6 months later, when I had the film developed, the photo came out a little overexposed from the bright white background of the glacier. There was clearly a large, dark object visible in the middle of it though, but not with clarity.

ALSO NOTICED: I considered going down to take photos of footprints in the ice and mud, but I was stuggling to breathe and that side of the mountain was extremely thick and nasty.

OTHER WITNESSES: I was not only alone, but for weeks I was actually hiding from 'trekkers'. So I didn't speak of my encounter with anyone for weeks after.

OTHER STORIES: Not from anyone I've ever spoken to. The notable event here would be to say how nonchalant the Sherpas were when hearing the howls. I noticed no sign of excitement in them, while I was praying that my dysentary would not force me to venture out of the rock hut during the night!

TIME AND CONDITIONS: The howls were at night, the sighting in mid-day.

ENVIRONMENT: At the Tibet/Nepal border area, 10 mile radius from Langtang Lirung (25,000 ft.). In very steep, thick brush. I was at about 20,000 ft. and the sighting on the glacier was about 300 yards down from me.

Follow-up investigation report:

Excerpts from interview with witness, 41, who now lives in southwestern Colorado.


"It seemed to be brownish-black. Solid. Definitely a beefy creature on two legs just going up and down among the crevices of this steep glacier that was about 80 to 100 yards wide. It was very agile. It made its way to other side and made away into brush. It seems like it was 5-10 minutes. I didn't have a watch. I was just fascinated, drop- jawed. I knew right away it was a yeti, but I didn't have proof and I didn't make it down there. I was just taking baby breaths sitting there. Glacier was 80- 100 yds wide.

"It was a very remote area. That's why I was there. There was a village maybe 10 miles away that consisted of basically 3 people. One was an 80- year old deaf buddhist monk who lived under a big rock. This area was known for yak cheese production, but all the yak herders were gone. It was late in year."


The witness says that he recognized howls similar to the ones he heard in Nepal near the Conejos River in July 2002.

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