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William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2018
This William Collins paperback edition published in 2019
Copyright © Graham Hoyland, 2018
Photographs © Individual copyright holders
Cover fur © Photoshop
Jacket design by Jack Smyth
Graham Hoyland asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008279523
Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780008279516
Version: 2019-05-01
‘Illuminating and entertaining’ The Times
‘A thorough and highly enjoyable round-up of current “cryptid credibility” written by someone with much Himalayan experience’ Literary Review
Praise for Graham Hoyland
‘A towering work full of twists and turns’ Independent
‘Great book, great vision’ Brian Blessed
‘This richly enjoyable book will entertain you on one page, enrage you on the next and make you get your walking boots on the third. I think it’s the most effective advertisement for the countryside I’ve ever encountered’ Daily Mail
A Times Book of the Week
To the seekers after truth
Contents
Copyright
Praise
Dedication
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Footnotes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
Picture Credits
About the Author
Also by Graham Hoyland
October 2016
The footprints in the snow were large, bigger than a human’s, with clearly defined toes. There was no sign of claw-marks. These prints looked as though they had been made only minutes before we arrived. I shivered and glanced around the deserted valley. We were the first Westerners ever to see this place, and we really hadn’t meant to come here.
Our expedition was in trouble. We had been trying to reach Gangkar Punsum, the world’s highest unclimbed mountain. This lies on the Tibetan border in Bhutan, the Himalayan kingdom to the east of Kathmandu which is rarely visited by Westerners. The weather had been the worst in living memory, with rain or snow on every single day since leaving Thimpu, the capital. On day three, our packhorses were attacked by wild bees, and then our leader had suffered a back injury and was now lying in a crude shelter in the jungle four days behind, tended by our doctor. Our problem was that the high pass we had just crossed was now closed to our yaks by heavy snow. We couldn’t retreat that way, and the passes towards the mountain were closed too. We were trapped, and the 25 yaks only carried supplies for three weeks. We had to get out before winter set in. As the five remaining Westerners, we could have attempted to re-cross the pass, leaving the yaks behind, but as acting leader I was unhappy about splitting the party even further. We had to stay with our tents and food. We also had a whole yak-herder family with us, including a young mother nursing an 8-month-old baby, so it was clear that we had to sink or swim together.
I asked our yak-herder Namgay Tsering for advice, and it was then that he told me of a lost valley that might provide a route back to civilisation,
