New York's famous Explorers Club, which has counted President Teddy Roosevelt, Sir Edmund Hillary and Neil Armstrong as members, aims to help the small Himalayan country of Bhutan test the legend of the Yeti — not for the first time, but possibly the last. The club's president, Alan Nichols, and several other members have advised Bhutan's crown prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck on the best means to prove or disprove the existence of the mountain cryptid (that's the term for animals for which there is no evidence, but plenty of anecdote).
DNAinfo reports that the partnership evolved out of a plan to set up an Explorers Club chapter in Bhutan, and Wangchuck asked if the Explorers would help settle the question of the "Abominable Snowman's" existence. Nichols told DNAinfo that it is not exactly a search for the Yeti, more a search for any large mammals in the area that might have inspired the legend. Local bears or mountain gorillas, he suggested, may have been mistaken for the Yeti, or even an undiscovered (but not abominable) species. Automated cameras, motion detectors and solar power stations may be used in the search in remote areas where the Yeti is said to roam.
Sir Edmund Hillary, the famous adventurer first to climb Mount Everest, last took on the legend on the club's behalf, in 1960. He and his colleague Marlin Perkins found no evidence of the creature, and exposed a Yeti scalp as a fake. Perhaps this second expedition will bury the story forever — but we doubt it.
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