Comments on: Hillary’s Yeti Debunking Lives On

By: Lyndon

Lyndon — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:34:26 +0000

“Have there been any ‘good’ sightings of a Yeti in the past 5 or 10 years? At least with Bigfoot you get some continuous indication that they exist, via sightings.”

A British t.v crew (scientific) went to Bhutan in search of the local variation of Yeti. A hunter had a sighting and took them to the place. A hair was recovered which was analyzed at Oxford by Dr Brian Sykes, one of the world’s top geneticists. It was the first time he was unable to identify DNA and was stumped. As far as I am aware it’s still a mystery and unidentified to this day.

By: DWA

DWA — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:39:39 +0000

I could add, in stark contrast to the apparent results of the Hillary expedition, another take I have heard on this, which says that when Sherpas are asked to inventory the local wildlife, a typical answer goes something like this:

“Let’s see…brown bear….tahr….serow….goral….bharal….mouse hare….um, leopard, yeti, er, black bear, snow leopard, red panda….”

…But like any good skeptic, I hasten to remind all again that when dealing with Westerners, Sherpas are not unknown to insert tongue firmly in cheek upon occasion.

By: DWA

DWA — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:28:38 +0000

This isn’t really a discussion about humility vs. arrogance. It’s a discussion about people’s thinking about one topic as versus another, that’s all.

The point is simply this: Hillary is not the person I am looking to to satisfy me one way or the other about the yeti. He lacks the qualifications; didn’t do the research (no, a survey of Sherpas – noted, as Hillary surely must have known, among the world’s greatest practical jokers – doesn’t qualify as research, at least not complete research) and started out with the end result already in mind.

Although a certain mainstream tendency to swallow whole, without criticism, anything that confirms well-entrenched beliefs is, as always, well worth noting.

By: sasquatch

sasquatch — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:12:42 +0000

Actually I remember seeing Hillary interviewed about this and I thought he came off as fairly arrogant…But it does not suprise me that Ben Radford defends a doubter. I think when you throw a stone down a dark alley and you hear a whelp you probably hit something…in this case…(I quote myself); “If I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist” probably hits squarely home. Why wasn’t Hillary more humbly inclined like one of our more famous bigfoot hunters Peter Byrne, and admit to hunting leopards etc. and being amazed at how hard it was to ever even get a glimpse… And be more open about the possibility that yeti’s might exist even tho’ HE couldn’t find one? I think the “scientific community” is rife with the type of egotism I’ve described and maybe fairly or unfairly (If Ben is to be believed) included Hillary in with this ilk.

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:27:16 +0000

Mr. Radford:

Hillary was indeed humble, but he certainly was NOT objective.

Like Loren said, Hillary’s expedition was one-sided from the start.

They had already decided that it did not exist. And I find (like others here) mighty strange that Mr. Banerjee and Mr. Hillary did not meet one person who saw the Yeti.

By: DWA

DWA — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:35:51 +0000

jamesrav:

“If a California Bigfoot ‘colony’, surrounded by several million people in Northern California can remain elusive for 60 years, the chances of a find in the sparsely populated Himalayas is downright nil.”

It might be good to get a clarification on this one. Although if you mean that the Himalayas are so sparsely populated that two or three species of undiscovered primate could thrive there unbothered, I could maybe agree with you there.

As to northern CA, lots of people don’t know how sparsely populated that area is. The forest set-asides are huge. I did a six-night backpack there once, a beautiful week in June, and saw not one person. And saw more bears on one day than I did clouds in the sky for the whole week. It’s REAL quiet up there. Most of the locals don’t even know the wild places that well.

In terms of running under the radar, the yeti could do very well in the Himalayas without science ever noting the fact.

By: jamesrav

jamesrav — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:11:12 +0000

seeing “Hillary” and “debunking” in the same sentence I thought perhaps our presidential candidate had claimed a Yeti sighting while under sniper fire in Bosnia

If a California Bigfoot ‘colony’, surrounded by several million people in Northern California can remain elusive for 60 years, the chances of a find in the sparsely populated Himalayas is downright nil. Have there been any ‘good’ sightings of a Yeti in the past 5 or 10 years? At least with Bigfoot you get some continuous indication that they exist, via sightings.

By: greywolf

greywolf — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:52:04 +0000

Well I wonder if in later years Hillary thought by saying that it the yeti is not real, was his way of protecting it. If he thought in any way that the Yeti might be real it needed protection from the would be hunters as well as protecting the mountain and the people from the deluge of hikers and researchers as well. I guess China has done that for now.

By: Benjamin Radford

Benjamin Radford — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:46:56 +0000

Sasquatch wrote: “Very Scientific. Err…egotistical.”

Actually, if you knew anything about Hillary, you’d know he was far from egostistical, he was incredibly humble. He even refused to acknowledge that he was the first to step on the summit until after his partner Norgay died, because he didn’t want to detract from Norgay’s accomplishments.

By: sasquatch

sasquatch — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:53:06 +0000

If I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist. Very Scientific. Err…egotistical. When your name starts with “Sir” you certainly can’t be skunked! You must save face you see…
As for the claim that no-one ever takes personal responsibilty for seeing one…How about that girl who’s been on t.v. that says SHE was attacked by one next to a river and it ripped up her cow or donkey (whatever animal-I forgot)?
THAT was a first hand account.