The Sherpa and the Snowman

Foreword
I am glad to have the opportunity to add my to testimony this
book about Sherpas and Snowmen, because I believe in them
both, though in different ways. In four expeditions and many
wanderings through the Himalayas over a period
of more than
twenty years, I have had Sherpas as my companions. I have seen
them enduring even grinning under dire duress in a blizzard,
on steep and hazardous ground, gasping for breath at high alti
tude. I have also seen them relaxed in the bosom of their families,
and lit up by the spirit ofcelebration. My feeling about the Sherpa
folk is best expressed by saying that there is no one whom I would
sooner have with me in a tough spot, there is no one with whom
I have felt more at home than those fine companions of mine
Tensing : Angtharkay : Pasang Dawa Lama : Pasang
Kikuli : Dawa
Thondup : Palden : Da Tenzing : Da Namgyal : Ang Nyima and
many others. are They the salt of the earth.
And I believe in the Yeti. I have seen his tracks, heard his
yelping call, listened to first-hand experiences of reputable local
people, similar to those which you will read about in this book.
Indeed, why should he not exist? I said as much to Ralph Izzard of
the Daily Mail, when I was travelling by air towards Kathmandu
and Everest in 1953. I further said that I thought it high time
that a scientific expedition took the field with the specific mission
of throwing more light on the subject. It is possible that this
chance remark may have had something to do with the setting
of which Mr. Stonor was a member. That
up of the expedition
they did not sight a Yeti is scarcely surprising.
That evidence will
be produced sooner or later, sufficient to convince the doubters,
is beyond doubt.
John Hunt
Camberley
19th February 1955
vii