A photograph of a mysterious footprint believed to be that of a yeti has sold for £3,500.

Interesting picture, do you think its real??

The 'yeti' footprint was photographed in the Menlung Basin in the Himalayas in 1951.

A team of mountaineers travelled to the region on a reconnaissance mission before attempting to conquer Everest for the first time, a feat achieved two years later.

A member of the expedition, Tom Bourdillon, sent it to his friend Michael Davies with an inscription on the reverse.

"Dear Mick, here are the footprint photos: sorry for the delay. We came across them on a high pass on the Nepal-Tibet watershed during the 1951 Everest expedition.

"They seemed to have come over a secondary pass at about 19,500ft, down to 19,000ft where we first saw them, and then went on down the glacier. We followed them for the better part of a mile.

"What it is, I don't know, but I am quite clear that it is no animal known to live in the Himalaya, and that it is big. Compare the depths to which it and Mike Ward (no featherweight) have broken into the snow. Yours, Tom Bourdillon."

More information on Link.

Thats a pretty big footprint how big are those ice picks roughly?

reply to post by Denied



It's a very famous photograph, and probably the single item which did most to bring the story of the Yeti to public awareness in the 1950s.

I have a copy of it in a book on the Everest expeditions at home where it is discussed in a bit more detail and I think it discusses the size in there. I 'll look it out and check later.

[edit on 28-9-2007 by timeless test]

Actually the detail in my book is very limited referring only to Eric Shipton's comments that the prints were "as long as, and a good deal broader than our climbing boots".

However, this is not the only photograph taken at the time and the one below is from the same series.



I had completely forgotten I had this lurking on my hard drive.

[edit on 28-9-2007 by timeless test]