The Abominable Snowman of Shangri-la
by Marcus Fischer Mellbin

This story is specially dedicated
to my friends in Denmark

In the North of Yunnan Province in China the Shangri-la area stretches into the Himalaya Mountains. Here in the never-ending mountains Snow Leopards roam the steep mountainsides. These big cats eat anything in their path so the Sherpas are frightened and stay away.  Where the snow meets the mountain, caves are sometimes found. Avalanches usually cover these cave mouths.

Chapter One

Professor Snow the famous inventor came to the Himalaya’s to test a special radar that could pick up life readings in any weather condition. The radar was built to help keep an eye on rare animals. While testing it the radar showed a large life form. Professor Snow got very excited because it was the biggest life reading he had seen on his radar. Professor Snow called on his assistant Mark, who was a zoologist and asked him “Do you know what kind of life form this is?” Mark answered “It’s nothing I know too. It’s possible it’s the Abominable Snow Man.”

Snow called Dr. Linquist a very clever mountain explorer who was Marks best friend. Dr. Linquist was half the world away exploring the Inca trail in Peru. He was busy packing up his tent, when his mobile telephone rang. Snow said, “We have just picked up a life reading that nobody knows what is. According to our measurements it is three meters tall. We know it’s not a Snow Leopard. This is so interesting because it is the first life reading we have ever picked up at this height. We need you to help us get up there and take pictures to show to the world.” “I’ll come! How many are going up there?” “With you, there will be eight”.
 

Chapter Two

A mad scientist named Stein and his group of poachers were wide-awake not far from Snow and his team of researchers. They were very quite in their huge tent so that they could hear the radio. The poachers were starring excitedly at the radio while their boss lit a cigar.

Suddenly the radio crackled up with speech. A voice told them that Snows research camp has picked up a life reading that Snow believed was the Abominable Snow Man. Axel an international poacher jumped up noisily and put on his gear and grabbed his weapons. “I am going to go out and look for that life reading our spy just told us about”. And then he left.

Duke a poacher wanted all over the world said to Stein “He’s gonna regret he went out alone.” Stein answered “I think you’re right!”

In Snow’s camp Snow came up to Mike the radio operator. “Send a radio message to the supply team in town and ask them to bring up food, water and mountain climbing equipment, please. We are going to go out to hunt the life reading we have picked up.”
 

Chapter Three

In his cave the Abominable Snow Man woke up hungry from a long sleep. His scary silvery eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness. His razor sharp golden teeth flashed brightly from the little sunlight coming in through the cave mouth. On the cave floor there were fish bones, rabbit skeletons and bird feathers. He sat down and scratched his snow-white fury neck. He stood up and was three meters tall. He quietly peaked from side to side looking for people and walked slowly out of his cave.

The Abominable Snow Man was lumbering listening for animal sounds and trying to smell animals and looking for footprints in the snow. He turned a bend and spotted a group of people far away. He felt danger and got very scared. Because he was so scared he roared a fierce roar that made him feel stronger and ran away.

He ran back around the bend again. He jumped from side to side to make his tracks difficult to follow. Han ran quickly away and stopped near a mountain path that went up higher into the mountains. He ran up and came to a cliff side took a deep breath and jumped to the other side. When he was on the other side he felt safe.

He found a tunnel leading through the mountain to the valley with his cave. When he was in the valley he peaked from side to side and walked till he came to his cave. He went inside and fell asleep.
 

Chapter Four

Snow’s team was searching for footprints in the snow when they heard a fierce roar. Snow asked Mark “Do you have any idea of what animal that roar came from?” “I have no idea. It’s possible it was the Abominable Snow Man!” Snow locked the position in to his radar.

Snow and his team walked up the steep mountainside to find out what had roared that fierce roar. Mark said, “I have spotted footprints in the snow!” “Let’s measure them and take pictures to show the world.” Snow said.

Linquist led the way following the footprints until they came to a cliff side. Then he said, “We will have to go back to base camp if we are ever to follow the footprints on the other side. We have to cross this deep cliff and if anybody falls he will die and it will be my fault.” Mark said, “I agree!”

The search team took the same route back to base camp to get more equipment.
 

Chapter Five

The Abominable Snow Man left his cave very hungry. He still felt a little scared but his hunger forced him to go out.

He lumbered to a lake in the distance. The lake was frozen. He took one step out on the ice turned around and picked up a rock. He hurled the rock onto the ice making a big hole. Then he jumped into the lake. He felt a little cold but quickly got warmer again by chasing his prey. He swam around grabbing fish and holding them between his jaws. When he couldn’t hold anymore fish he swam back to the hole, pulled himself up and took the fish out of his mouth. He was starving and began to eat immediately.

Suddenly the Abominable Snow Man was attacked from behind by a Snow Leopard wanting his fish! The Snow Leopard knocked the Abominable Snow Man flat head first onto the ice. He felt the cat’s claws ripping into his back. The Abominable Snow Man turned around and hit the furry creature in its face with his giant paw. He picked up his unconscious attacker and hurled him into a tree. The tree fell down on the cat, which roared with pain as its back made a load crack. He ran to the cat to kill it crouching down and pushing his teeth into the cats heart.

Hungry and thirsty he started to eat his fish again.

Then a gun shoot nearly missed the Abominable Snow Man. Axel had stumbled by him.

The Abominable Snow Man stood up, turned around and saw Axel. He sensed the danger of death and thought Axel also wanted his food. Axel tried to reload his gun, but was too slow. The Abominable Snow Man charged at Axel and hit him beside the eye. He saw the blood flowing from his enemy’s head. Wanting to make sure no people would find the body the Abominable Snow Man pulled it by the leg over to the lake and dumped it in. The blood quickly turned into red ice.

He was feeling very tired and went back to his cave to sleep.
 

Chapter Six

With ropes and special mountaineering equipment Dr. Linquist led the way into the mountains. It was a hard climb up the icy sides of the mountains. Suddenly they came to a lake.

They walked a little closer, when Mark shouted out, “Look a dead Snow Leopard! A tree trunk has fallen on it. I’ll go down and take a closer look at it”. Mark ran towards the Snow Leopard, but before he reached it, he spotted something frozen in the lake. He went closer until he could clearly see a leg with a boot sticking out of the bloody ice. “Oh! Man! There is somebody or something frozen in the ice!“ Mark shouted to the others.

The others came rushing down to take a look. They grabbed some pickaxes and started cutting through the ice. Mark threw a rope around the red iceberg and pulled it to the edge. Up on the ice Mark cut out the body and saw the large claw wound beside the right eye. “He must have been killed by the Abominable Snow Man. I have never seen a claw wound this big except from a bear. Split up and search for clues”.

They went separately around the lake and after a while Linquist found some white fur in the snow. He also found a bullet. Five minutes later Snow found some footprints. “Its obvious that the guy we found in the ice must have been a poacher trying to kill the Abominable Snow Man. This is bad. We better follow the tracks before any more poachers find him!”

They followed the footprints for a couple of hours until they came to a cave. Snow told the radio operator “Log in the co-ordinates. We’ve better be careful, so we don’t get killed.” and then they walked into the tunnel.

-oo 0 oo –

The Abominable Snow Man heard noises and woke from his sleep. He was really scared. He heard weak trembling voices. He saw lights. He jumped to his feet and roared fiercely! He ran towards the lights, which came from the entrance. Now he could clearly see it was a group of people heading towards his cave. He pushed them aside and escaped out into the snow.

He ran high up into the mountains to find a new cave. All he thought about was escape. He turned around a mountain pass and ran directly into Duke and Stein!

Again he roared angrily and pushed them aside. The two poachers landed in deep snow and got stuck. The Abominable Snow Man just kept on running.

He remembered a cave he used to store food in. He jumped over a small crack in the snow and dug out the cave mouth. Inside the cave it was nice and warm. In the back of the cave there were many bones from rabbits, birds and fish.

–  oo 0 oo –

Duke and Stein got out of the snow and radioed their spy. Stein said, “We have just been run down by the Abominable Snow Man! We are going to get that sucking creature if it is going to cost us our lives! Has Axel radioed you lately?”

“No! But I have seen him. And he is dead!  He was killed by the Abominable Snow Man. Snow’s team has found the Abominable Snow Man’s cave and we are following the tracks fast!”

Duke and Stein cut off the radio and started to move quickly, following the footprints. Duke said to Stein “The Abominable Snow Man has got to go back to his cave some time. If we don’t hurry it will get back to its cave and some of Snow’s team will be waiting there”.
 

Chapter Seven

It began to snow heavily in the Himalaya Mountains. Slowly it turned into a blizzard.

–  oo 0 oo –

The Abominable Snow Man woke up to hear the wind whistling loudly outside his cave. He stood up a little sleepy and walked to the cave entrance. The Abominable Snow Man felt hungry again. He could feel that he was safe from people in the blizzard, so he went out to hunt.

–  oo 0 oo –

Trying to run through the snow Duke and Stein slowly got tired. Before they could catch up with the Abominable Snow Man the blizzard covered up the footprints. Duke asked Stein “Which way do you think it went?”

“I think he went through that mountain pass to the right” Stein answered. They walked slowly in the deep snow. They fell and felt cold when snow got into their suites. Stein asked Duke “Do you have any idea where we are?” Duke said, “No, but one thing I do know is we are lost!” Duke reached into his bag for his radio but it wasn’t there. Duke said to Stein “The radio is not in my bag!” Stein took off his own bag to check if the radio was there. “I think we must have lost it when we fell in the snow” Duke said. Stein said “Oh no! We’re lost!”

–  oo 0 oo –

Snows team was still following the footprints when it began to snow. The snow made the footprints invisible. Snow asked the radio operator to try to track down the Abominable Snow Man with the special radar. Linquist said to the others “I think it is safest if only Snow, Mark, Mike and myself go further up into the mountains.”

The radar was still working. Mike said to Snow “I have got the Abominable Snow Man on the screen!” Slowly they walked further up into the mountain as they made plans to catch the Abominable Snow Man. Linquist said “The easiest way to capture it is by cutting it off. To do this we have to cut him off at the mountain pass that splits up into a Y. He will be going down one of the mountain passes.”

–  oo 0 oo –

The Abominable Snow Man’s sharp eyes were searching every side of the mountain pass for food. Suddenly he heard the sound of moving legs. The Abominable Snow Man’s sharp hearing had picked up Linquist’s footsteps from behind.

The Abominable Snow Man saw Linquist and roared angrily. He tried to run but Mark blocked his way. He felt trapped. The Abominable Snow Man only thought about escape. He jumped on to the side of the mountain and landed on the other side of Mark. Mark turned around and accidentally hit the Abominable Snow Man in the head. The Abominable Snow Man felt scared and angry. He felt so angry he killed Mark with his giant paw.

Linquist felt very sad to see one of best friends die like that. All he thought of was capturing the beast for scientific research. He cocked his injection gun. Linquist shouted, “Duck everybody!” He felt the wind blow strongly against his side. He was shivering, because he was scared. He fired.

The dart turned and missed!

The dart flew right into Mike’s forehead. Mike screamed in terror as the poison spread in his blood. Mike got weaker and weaker till he died.

The Abominable Snow Man startled Linquist by taking off like a rocket. He grabbed Linquist. Linquist could feel the Abominable Snow Man’s claws ripping into his back as he was lifted above ground. The Abominable Snow Man threw Linquist into a rock. Linquist screamed in pain as his skull cracked open.

Snow was terrorised at the thought of dying. He ran for Linquist’s gun. He grabbed it with shaking hands. He could see blood nearly everywhere. It was hardly possible to see the Abominable Snow Man in the blizzard. Snow fired towards the sound of footsteps. Without knowing it he made a near miss.

The Abominable Snow Man charged with terrific speed at Snow, hitting him in the guts. Snow cried out frightened as his intestines flew out of his mouth.

–  oo 0 oo –

Lost, Duke and Stein made their way down the mountain. While they were walking through a mountain pass they heard the Abominable Snow Man roar. Duke asked Stein “What the hell was that?” “It was the roar of the Abominable Snow Man! It doesn’t look to good for us if Snow has caught him.”

“I don’t think he has caught him” said Duke “Because I can hear shooting and shouting down there!”

“What cry was that?” Stein asked. “Listen, said Duke, “It’s completely silent now.”

They quickly ran towards the terrifying sound. All they saw was bodies and blood. “Yew, this is yuck!” commented Stein. “Do you think the Abominable Snow Man escaped?” asked Duke. “No, but I have a bad feeling about this.”

And Stein was right. The Abominable Snow Man sneaked up on Duke and Stein, grabbed them from the back and smashed their heads together crushing their skulls.

The Abominable Snow Man pulled all six dead bodies one after one to his cave. He also took all the equipment to his cave and hid everything.

Only blood was left in the snow.
 

In 1951 Eric Shipton photographed a “Yeti” footprint on an expedition to Mount Everest. The footprint was longer than a pickaxe. Eric became famous because of the photograph. It was published in “The Times” on December 6, 1951. The summer of 1955 exploded with Yeti interest with expeditions and reports on discoveries throughout the Himalaya’s. Eric had actually only made a big joke on the whole world. He was known for his liking for travellers’ tales. Eric himself said to “The Times” that it was sad that the British Natural Museum took this matter so serious.

Marcus Fischer Mellbin, December 1998