Japanese Explorers Begin Yeti Expedition in Nepal

A team of Japanese adventurers hope to prove the existence of the mysterious yeti in Nepal's mountains, focusing on an area they are convinced is home to the legendary creature.

Tales of a huge half-man-half-ape roaming the high Himalayas are as old as the hills, and local Sherpa stories about the hairy giant have gripped the imaginations of Western adventurers and mountaineers for decades.

Takahashi Yoshiteru, 65, and six other Japanese team members are trekking to Dhaulagiri IV, a 7,661-metre (25,135-foot) peak where they say they have seen traces of the beast on past trips in 1994 and 2003.

"They are going to the same area where I saw the silhouette of a yeti in 2003," expedition spokeswoman Nobuko Koyama told AFP Friday.

They set off from Kathmandu on Thursday.

The expedition members will spend six weeks on the peak and will set up six infra-red camera traps on the mountain 220 kilometres (137 miles) northwest of Kathmandu.

The exploration team is known as the Yeti Project Japan and is being sponsored by Japanese beverage maker Suntory and a leading Japanese daily newspaper, Asahi Shimbum.

The cameras will be automatically triggered if any large animals pass, the spokeswoman said.

"Takahashi is not interested in capturing a yeti, he just wants to get a clear picture of it, and maybe shake its hand," said Koyama.

Japanese Explorers Begin Yeti Expedition in Nepal
Japanese Explorers Begin Yeti Expedition in Nepal