Thanks to Craig for sharing his encounter.
In 1998 I took a sojourn in India, I lived there for a while in NW India’s Himalayan foothills, the closest airstrip would be Bhuntar. I did the usual stuff, hiking, playing hours of karrom and generally soaking up the sights. We took walks that lasted days through places like the uninhabited Sanj valley, met the strange people of Mallana (who haven’t bred outside their own village since Alexander the Great, or so the local opinion goes, indeed your not even allowed to touch them!) but it wasn’t far from a pretty busy little place called Kasol where I had my rude awakening. If you look on the map I suppose the closest place you will see is Manikuran. The country there is pretty dammed wild, you can hear boulders migrating down the river beds at night in the powerful course of the glacier melt waters! We were staying in a chai house about 2 miles from Kasol and after a trip into town for a hair cut and something to eat other than chick pea Dahl! I had to turn off the road to take care of nature. I knew I couldn’t get lost as the path ran parallel to the river so I veered iff for some privacy, it’s hard to come by in India!
I walked to the river, about 10 feet from the bank, and found a suitable enclave, the noise from the river cuts out all other noise. Without going into to much personal detail I had my back to the enclave looking out through the bushes towards the water, and had been there maybe five minutes. Something moved to my right and when I turned, which I did cautiously because there are black bears there and this thing was about 10 feet from me, I saw what can only be described yeti, standing also looking out towards the river, the sighting could have only lasted a couple if seconds, it was stood slightly higher than me on the same rocky enclave I was squat behind. Horrible to faced with that when your pants are round your ankles!!
It wasn’t that tall, maybe a little taller than me so say 6-7 ft but was extremely heavy in the shoulders, and had immense thighs, I could see a suggestion of stomach and chest as the fur was extremely thin around this area. I didn’t notice a smell or anything but then the air is constantly moving that close to such a fast river so I can’t say it didn’t smell, just that I couldn’t smell it. It’s shoulders were massively built, I remember the biggest impact it made were it’s thighs and shoulder. It’s arms were very thick and I think longer than ours would be in proportion to its body. It’s face wasn’t easy to discern because I was lower than it and I was squatting put I do remember the powerful jaw line and heavy brow that I could just about make out, it did have ears though, slightly obscured by the fur but small like a child’s. I couldn’t make out the top of the head. It’s fur or hair was thick around the front part of the shoulder but shorter and thinner else where, and was brown where it was shorter and became slightly grey at the longer parts.
Anyway, it popped through the bushes and stared out across the river, it was slightly crouched with its right hand about shoulder height on a tree, I was down against the enclave and to it’s left. I froze. Don’t think I even blinked. It never did see me, which I cannot understand to this day but I guess the closeness of the river, with the noise and the misty spray you get must have dulled it’s senses. It turned to its right then moved very quickly across the back of the tree and was gone, I couldn’t hear it go because of the river. It’s the one and only time I never bothered wiping my arse, that’s for sure, I made my way quickly back to the path and headed for the chai place, I was dammed glad my room was in the first floor. I never did report it, Indian police wouldn’t have given a toss, and I didn’t tell fellow travelers at the chai shop, I didn’t know them well enough to blurt that out, I did feel a little guilty, as perhaps they should have been told for their own safety, but I chickened out, not proud of that. I’ve never even told my wife of 11 years, she doesn’t believe in anything she can’t touch or see, so I don’t think I ever will. I’m absolutely positive of what I witnessed, I was damn close, this was not someone hoaxing me, people struggle to exist out their financially, no one would possess a million dollar special effects suit solely to scare me shitless. When I look back I wish I’d seen it’s face, but then I guess it would have seen me and I don’t know what its reaction may have been, animals don’t react well when you surprise them.
These are pictures of the general area, and not of the actual sighting location.
