Yeti

Like most people, I am really attracted to a mystery. Since my early years I have read books and articles on such creatures as the Loch Ness Monster, the Sasquatch and the Yeti. Many of my friends are biologists and there is enough scientist in me to be skeptical. Where is the bit of bone or hair which could be used for DNA analysis? However, there are enough eye witness accounts by credible observers to cause me to be open, even hopeful, that such creatures exist and will be authenticated some day.

I have met Sir Edmund Hillary a couple of times. We were both resource people on a trip to Antarctica. I have long admired not only his Mount Everest ascent but especially his work with Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation to help build schools and hospitals in Nepal. My wife, Birgit, and I have long supported his work, so when I was asked to take part in a fundraising auction on a Yeti theme, I was delighted to do so.

The Yeti, or "Abominable Snowman" is evidently a large, man-like ape that lives in the high Himalayas. There have been many sightings and observations of tracks plus endless stories from local people, but no specimen or good photographs. It was enjoyable for me to construct this creature by combining features from living apes and primitive humans. It was important for me to give him a sense of time and place, as if you had come around a cliff and surprised him. He is giving you an unsettling suspicious glance before he strides out of sight and disappears in the snowy vastness.