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Part 5
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On the Menlung La we had our fIrst view of an isolated and dominant spire of pale pink granite which soared from the green pastures at its foot. This was Peak XIX, 23,570ft, which we named 'Menlung Tse' after the river of that name which separated it from Gaurisankar, the culminating point of a long ridge to the west. To its north lay the glistening white range of the Lapche Kang; and Gosainthan (Shisha Pangma) sprang from the bare, brown plateau of Tibet.
Unroped, yet close together, we descended the broad, easy and gentle slopes of the glacier that ended in the Menlung Chu until, at an almost flat area at about 15-16,OOO ft, we came across a whole series of footprints in the snow. These seemed to be of two varieties, one rather indistinct leading to the surrounding snowfIelds, while the other had in places a markedly individual imprint etched in the two to four-inch snow covering on the top of hard neve. We had no means of measuring these, so Shipton took four photographs, two of the indistinct prints with myself, my footprints and rucksack as comparison; the other two photos were of one of the most distinct and detailed prints, one with my ice axe and one with my booted foot for scale. This footprint was about the same length as my boot, a continental size 42 (8'/2 British), which is about 12-13 inches long. The print was nearly twice as broad as my boot and had clear edges. There was the definite imprint of a big toe, broader, sharper and shorter than the other rather indistinct toes of which there seemed to be five or six.
We followed the tracks some way down the easy glacier and noted that whenever a narrow, six inch-wide crevasse was crossed there seemed to be 'claw' marks in the snow. Finally we left the glacier and the line of footprints to get onto a grassy lateral moraine. We followed this for some time, passing a number of wild goats, until we found a suitable camp site.
Michael Ward, The Yeti Footprints: Myth and Reality, The Alpine Journal vol 104, pg 81, 1999
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Jennifer returned just as the sun was starting to set. The girls fell upon her provisions ravenously, although Emily was clearly leading the pack. Jennifer tried to explain what the Old Man had told her but they weren't really listening.
"...and there's gonna be some hormonal stuff that..." she trailed off. The girls were too concentrated on food for the time being. So she let them eat and waited. For a nine-foot apewoman she was shockingly passive in social situations. Minutes passed as the girls gorged themselves.
"So this thing, this is like a potato or something? I've never seen it before. What's it called?" asked Sushmita, between bites "it's good".
Jennifer thought about it. "It doesn't have a name in English. They grow really deep in the earth. The tubers grow in the caves and the leaves grow up on the top of the mountains. They have really long stringy roots that grow through cracks in the rock."
"How do you say it in sasquatch?"
Jennifer made sort of a burbling sound.
"Cave potato. Got it."
Emily stopped eating abruptly, put down her piece of venison, reached into her mouth, and pulled out a tooth.
"Uh, Jennifer, should I be freaking out?" She held the tooth out. It was an upper jaw canine. The tooth seemed to have broken at the gumline; there was no root on it.
"Oh wow. You're going to be big. Is that the first one?"
"The first one? Uh yeah it's the first one. I know you haven't been human in a while but normally the teeth stay in."
"Okay, so, don't freak out. Sasquatch also have, like, baby teeth and adult teeth. There's no absolute rule or anything, but the biggest sasquatch usually have a third generation of teeth as they grow. It just means you're still growing. Same thing happened to me. If you can, swallow the tooth."
"What?!"
"You need calcium. The tooth will dissolve in your stomach acid. Also it means no one will find it." she paused "Although I suppose that's not as big a priority for you as it was for me."
"Jesus. Is there anything else we should know? Are my fingernails gonna fall out?"
"Ask your doctor if turning into a sasquatch is right for you. Side effects may include..."
"Not helpful Sush."
"No no, you'll keep your fingernails. Side effects, Let me see. Ok, see those flowers over there? Do you recognize those?"
"The wild roses? Actually yeah, hey, that's not a species I recognize. Wait, Memory loss? I'm going to lose my memory?"
"Stay calm, Emily. You won't lose your memory. Look at the roses. What colour are they?"
"Pink and yellow!" said Claire, like a kid blurting out an answer in class.