<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

My Quest for the Yeti is a book by world-famous mountaineer Reinhold Messner. It is a first-person account of his search for the reality behind the beliefs about the yeti, hairy biped of the Himalayas, also known as the Abominable Snowman.

Messner had a yeti sighting in July of 1986. He describes it as "large and dark" and notes that, "It moved upright."

Spurred by his own observation, Messner begins asking local people about their beliefs in the yeti, and their experiences with the creature. Many of these conversations are recorded in the book.

Messner comes to the conclusion that what is being described is a bear. He acknowledges that this is at variance with the popular theory that the yeti is a primate, possibly a human species.

His mountaineering skills and knowledge of the area enable Messner to get to more places and examine more pieces of evidence than previous researchers. He takes pictures of footprints, sees alleged skins, and photographs bears at a zoo that he thinks could be "chemos," a name he equates with "yeti".

Messner considers the legendary yeti and the animal he considers its inspiration as two different things.

Hominologists (who investigate hairy bipeds) point out that the descriptions (in particular, moving on two legs for a long period of time) do not fit a bear species. It has been suggested that there may be a bear species as well as a primate species.

Details

Title: My Quest for the Yeti: Confronting the Himalayas Deepest Mystery, ISBN 978-0312203948
Original German publication: 1998
Translation by Peter Constantine: 2000
Author: Reinhold Messner
169 pages
Photographs, illustrations, map (no index)