My Quest for the Yeti: Confronting the Himalayas’ Deepest Mystery

216 Pages·1944·36.564 MB·English

by  Messner, Reinhold

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ISBN 0-312-20394-2 $23.95
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living mountain climber—the first to reach
the top of Mount Everest without the use of
oxygen, the first to ascend all of the world’s highest
peaks — Reinhold Messner is without peer in his
knowledge of the Himalayas. He has scaled nearly
every peak and descended nearly every valley in this
region of towering danger, stark beauty, and endless
challenge.
Yet in 1986, during a solo climb in eastern Tibet,
Messner confronted the greatest terror of his career—
not a looming rockface or bottomless ice crevasse or
murderous blizzard; this terror was alive. A creature
had crossed his path, a creature of such proportions
and agility that it defied reason and category. For the
next few hours Messner saw it repeatedly, disap-
pearing, reappearing, both chilling his marrow and
thrilling him with the sudden yet burning conviction
that he had found living proof of a legend. The
legend of the yeti.
My Quest for the Yeti gives us Messner’s heroic
and riveting efforts to solve the riddle of the creature
Westerners have called the “abominable snowman.”
Ignoring the inevitable derision that greeted his
announcement of the sighting, Messner became con-
vinced that somewhere between tall tales told around
campfires and intriguing but inconclusive tabloid
photographs lay something of flesh and blood. He
followed the centuries-old migratory routes of the
Sherpa people through Nepal, India, Bhutan, and
Tibet. Often alone and on foot — to avoid Chinese
authorities—he explored labyrinths of fore its, ravines
and precipices, scouring isolated monasteries and
remote village marketplaces, seeking testimony, relics,
footprints, and hoping he would again confront his
{continued on the back flap)

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2017 with funding from
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~N
ALSO BY REINHOLD MESSNER
All 14 Eight Thousanders
Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate
To the Top of the World:
Alpine Challenges in the Himalaya and Karakoram
The Crystal Horizon: Everest—The First Solo Ascent
Reinhold Messner, Free Spirit: A Climber’s Life
Antarctica: Both Heaven and Hell
Big Walls: History Routes, Experiences
The Challenge
K2
The Seventh Grade: Most Extreme Climbing
Solo: Nanga Parbat

CONFRONTING
THE HIMALAYAS’ DEEPEST
MYSTE RY
Reinhold Messner
TRANSLATED BY PETER CONSTANTINE
ST. MARTIN’S PRESS W NEW YORK
MY QUEST FOR THE YETI. Copyright © 1998 by S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am
Main. Translation copyright © 2000 by Peter Constantine. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information
address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
The excerpt from The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz is reprinted with
permission from The Lyons Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Messner, Reinhold.
[Yeti—Legende und Wirklichkeit. English]
My quest for the yeti : confronting the Himalayas' deepest mystery / Remhold
Messner; translated by Peter Constantine.— 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-312-20394-2
1. Yeti. 2. Messner, Reinhold, 1944—Journeys—Himalaya Mountains Region.
I. Title.
QL89.2.Y4M4713 2000
001.944—dc21 99-055091
Book design by Kate Nichols
First published in Germany under the title Yeti:
Legende und Wirklichkeit by S. Fisher Verlag
First Edition; April 2000
13579 10 8642