Anthony Wooldridge's Yeti Photographs near Hemkund

Anthony B. Wooldridge was on a solo charity run through the Himalayas, on behalf of a small third world development organization. March 1986. The Alaknanda Valley, in the Garhwal Himalaya of northern India. His goal was Hemkund, home of the Gurdwara Hemkund Sahib at 15,000 ft, a place inaccessible from October through April because of snowbound paths and glaciers.

At about 11,200 ft, in a remote wooded area, he found a distinct trail that traveled through the snow from bush to bush. The prints were about 10 inches long. He took two photographs, including a close-up of a single print that resembled the one photographed by Eric Shipton in 1951.

About an hour later, his path crossed a steep slope. An avalanche had just come down. An unnatural groove ran through the snow, as if a large rock had slid down for a short distance, and more footprints led away from its bottom. His eyes followed them to a spindly shrub. Behind it stood a large, erect shape, perhaps up to 2 meters tall.

He took several shots at once, then moved to a spot as close as he could safely get, about 150 metres away. "It was standing with its legs apart, apparently looking down the slope, with its right shoulder turned towards me." The head was large and squarish. The whole body appeared to be covered with dark hair. In his opinion it was definitely not a monkey, bear, or ordinary human being.

He moved a little down the slope for a different angle. When he looked again, he had the distinct impression that the creature was now watching him as well. The avalanche risk, not knowing what it was, and being alone all held him back. For 45 minutes he watched as the weather worsened. He headed back to the last village before night fell.

That spring the International Society of Cryptozoology reported the news under the headline "First Yeti Photos Spark Renewed Interest." In September 1986, BBC Wildlife ran "Creature from the Avalanche," reported by David Helton. Wooldridge published his own field report, "First Photos of the Yeti: An Encounter in North India," in the journal Cryptozoology.

Primatologist John Napier, previously sceptical, was reportedly impressed with the entire series and called himself a "Yeti devotee." Archaeologist Myra Shackley found the experience very consistent with other reports of Yeti sightings. Science Frontiers was cooler. The creature never moved. That made the evidence enticing but still unconvincing.

In 1987 Wooldridge went back with companions. The shrub was still there, and the snow was deeper. They took stereo photographs and mapped the terrain around the shrub in three dimensions, showing that the object in the 1986 photographs lay below the snow level in the 1987 photographs. Nothing had moved between frames, and the apparent shifts against the bush were parallax created as the camera changed position. Wooldridge concluded in his letter titled "The Yeti: A Rock After All?" that what he had believed to be a stationary, living creature was, in reality, a rock.

No one has accused Wooldridge of a hoax. His retraction is now the standard example of a sincere misidentification. A dark rock outcrop, partly exposed in the snow and seen from below and to one side, had looked like an upright, hair-covered figure. The groove and the prints were real features in the snow. No source offers an explanation for what made them.