American Adventurer Reports 'Yeti' Sighting

American Adventurer Reports 'Yeti' Sighting

KATHMANDU (October 13, 1998 1:32 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - An American adventurer on a skiing expedition on Mount Everest said Tuesday he had seen two animals he believed were Yeti.

Craig Calonica said he saw two creatures together, walking erect, around Sept. 17.

The 45-year-old skier and climber was on his way down to base camp at 17,000 feet from a camp at 21,300 feet when he saw the creatures.

He said they had thick, shiny, black fur and walked like humans except a little hunched over at the shoulder.

"My point was that I saw something and what I saw was not human, that was not a gorilla, not bear, not a goat and it was not a deer," Calonica told Reuters.

"Their arms were very long and their hands were very big."

He said he was with his Nepali cook when he saw the animals.

The Yeti, or "abominable snowman," is considered a mythical creature though some attempts have been made since the 1950s to verify the authenticity of tracks left in the Himalayas.

Tibetans have believed in Yeti for thousands of years.

Last week, noted Tyrolean adventurer Reinhold Messner, the first man to climb the world's 14 peaks taller than 26,246 feet, said in Frankfurt that the Yeti was not a humanoid ape but a large bear.