My Quest for the Yeti: Confronting the Himalayas’ Deepest Mystery 9780312203948

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IHOL MESSNER Y QUEST FOR THE

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THG HIMALAYAS' DGGPGST MYSTGRY

ISBN

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0-312-20394-2

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living mountain climber—the first to reach the top of Mount Everest without the use of

oxygen, the first to ascend all of the world’s highest peaks — Reinhold Messner is without peer in his knowledge of the Himalayas. He has scaled nearly every peak and descended nearly every valley in this region of towering danger, stark beauty, and endless challenge. Yet in 1986, during a solo climb in eastern Tibet, Messner confronted the greatest terror of his career— not a looming rockface or bottomless ice crevasse or murderous blizzard; this terror was alive. A creature had crossed his path, a creature of such proportions and agility that it defied reason and category. For the next few hours Messner saw it repeatedly, disappearing, reappearing, both chilling his marrow and thrilling him with the sudden yet burning conviction that he had found living proof of a legend. The legend of the yeti. My Quest for the Yeti gives us Messner’s heroic and riveting efforts to solve the riddle of the creature Westerners have called the “abominable snowman.” Ignoring the inevitable derision that greeted his announcement of the sighting, Messner became convinced that somewhere between tall tales told around campfires and intriguing but inconclusive tabloid photographs lay something of flesh and blood. He followed the centuries-old migratory routes of the Sherpa people through Nepal, India, Bhutan, and Tibet. Often alone and on foot — to avoid Chinese authorities—he explored labyrinths of fore its, ravines and precipices, scouring isolated monasteries and remote village marketplaces, seeking testimony, relics, footprints, and hoping he would again confront his {continued

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ALSO BY REINHOLD

MESSNER

All 14 Eight Thousanders Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate To the Top of the World: Alpine Challenges in the Himalaya and Karakoram The Crystal Horizon: Everest—The First Solo Ascent Reinhold Messner, Free Spirit: A Climber’s Life Antarctica: Both Heaven and Hell Big Walls: History Routes, Experiences The Challenge K2 The Seventh Grade: Most Extreme Climbing Solo: Nanga Parbat

CONFRONTING

THE

HIMALAYAS’

DEEPEST

MYSTE RY

Reinhold Messner TRANSLATED BY PETER CONSTANTINE

ST.

MARTIN’S

PRESS

W

NEW

YORK

MY QUEST FOR THE YETI.

Copyright © 1998 by S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am

Main. Translation copyright © 2000 by Peter Constantine. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

The excerpt from

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz is reprinted with

permission from The Lyons Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Messner, Reinhold. [Yeti—Legende und Wirklichkeit. English] My quest for the yeti : confronting the Himalayas' deepest mystery / Remhold Messner; translated by Peter Constantine.— 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-312-20394-2 1. Yeti.

2. Messner, Reinhold, 1944—Journeys—Himalaya Mountains Region.

I. Title. QL89.2.Y4M4713

2000

001.944—dc21

99-055091

Book design by Kate Nichols

First published in Germany under the title Yeti: Legende und Wirklichkeit by S. Fisher Verlag

First Edition; April 2000

13579

10

8642

WHAT APPEARS AS A MONSTER

WHAT IS CALLED A MONSTER

WHAT IS RECOGNIZED AS A MONSTER

EXISTS WITHIN A HUMAN BEING HIMSELF

AND DISAPPEARS WITH HIM

MILAREPA, SHERPA POET (A.D. 1040-1123)

NOTE

I

Ejr\ A n i

...J

F

iz...

have tried throughout this book to be as faithful as possible to the meanings and pronunciations of the Chinese, Tibetan, and

other native Himalayan words I encountered on my journeys. However, because of the vagaries of dialects, concrete, word-for-word translations for the yeti are as elusive as the creature itself Despite their impressionistic nature, I hope the following partial list of rough translations and tentative etymologies (citing romanized versions of either written Tibetan forms or standard Chinese pronunciations) will prove useful to the reader. For further reading I recommend Languages and Dialects of Tibeto-Burman by James A. Matisoff with Stephen P. Baron and John B. Lowe, IAS Publications: University of California, 1996. Many thanks to Professor Julian Wheatley of MIT for his help.

IX

beshung: Chinese, “bai xiong”

“white bear.”

dzu teh, tshute, tsetu: spoken Tibetan, “tse-t’u”—“child of chemo.” dremo/dremong/chemo/chemong: cf. written Tibetan, “dred”“bear”; “dredmo”—“female bear.” mashiung: Chinese, “maxiong”—“brown bear.” migyu, migo, mygio, migiv: cf. written Tibetan, “mi”—“per55

son ;

iC

man

55

1

and

U

*11

wild.

55

renshung: Chinese, “ren xiong”—“man bear.” thelma: spoken Tibetan, “the-moh” or “telmoh”—“monkey.” tom: written Tibetan, “dom”—“bear.”

X

NOTE

TO

THE

READER

Note to Reader

IX

Map

xii

Yeti Research Expeditions

xv

1. July 1986: Somewhere in Tibet

1

2. Reunited in Lhasa

19

3. Confusion in Katmandu

33

4. Tales of the Yeti

57

5. Gods and Demons

71

6. Among the Yak Nomads

83

7. Curiosity and Ridicule

91

8. “Glacial Cosmogony” and “Ancestral Legacy”

107

9. Footprints in the Snow

123

10. White Head and Black Giant

135

11. The Pieces Fit

149

12. Life and Legend

159

Notes

167

Works Mentioned in the Text

169

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