Episode Thirteen: YETI! Part II - 2 Snowy, 2 Abominable
Photograph of the ‘Yeti’ footprint with ice axe taken by Eric Shipton on the British Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition, 1951
On December 7th 1951, a shocking photograph hit the front page of British newspapers. Taken half a world away, high on a glacier in the Himalayas, the image showed a footprint that defied belief. Huge, human-like, with round defined toes and an ice-axe next to it for scale. This footprint would propel the mysterious Yeti from mountaineering folklore into potential scientific reality.
From our last episode, we know how the myth first appeared in Western consciousness and the role it played in pre-WWII mountaineering. In this, our second and final episode on the history of the Yeti, we explore where our furry friend went from there. Expect dodgy scientific expeditions, Hollywood stars on artefact heists, high-flying Texan oil millionaires, and some adventurers so wild that they may just be Yeti themselves.
Check out our website and find us @themaydaypod on Instagram and Twitter to say hello. Our amazing composer and producer Marlon Grunden can be found at his website marlongrunden.com
Sources & further reading:
Graham Hoyland, Yeti: An Abominable History
Bryan Sykes, Bigfoot, Yeti, and the Last Neanderthal: A Geneticist’s Search for Modern Apemen
Reinhold Messner, My Quest for the Yeti: Confronting the Himalayas’ Deepest Mystery
Edmund Hillary, High Adventure: Our Ascent of the Everest
Edmund Hillary and Desmond Doig, High in the Thin Cold Air
Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero, Abominable Science! Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids
Eric Shipton, The Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition