The Yeti of the Forbidden Mountain or simply the Yeti is the main-antagonist of the attraction Expedition Everest, based on the cryptid of the same name. The character is referenced in multiple Jungle Cruise attractions.
Description[]
The Yeti of the Forbidden Mountain is a 25 foot tall primate which inhabits the Himalayas, namely the Forbidden Mountain. It is unknown if the creature is purely scientific, purely magical, some intersection of the two, a single entity, or a species of creature. The animal has wooly brown fur with bluish skin while lacking a nose, having a face similar to that of a snub-nosed monkey. The Yeti's feet are 44 inches long and resemble those of an orangutang, having large prehensile toes by their sides. The yeti has long claws resembling specialized fingernails and large canine teeth on both its upper and lower jaws.
History[]
Background[]
Origins[]
The Yeti is a massive ape inhabiting the Forbidden Mountain of the Himalayas, bordering the village of Serka Zong in the kingdom of Anandapur. Locals of the village would consider the Yeti to be a legendary figure who protected the Forbidden Mountain and which needed to be respected. 17th century Anadapur royal Parthiva Sankara Gavampati was known to have created mandir to the yeti and at some point, a temple was built on the foothills of the Forbidden Mountain to pay tribute to the creature.[1]
Incidents[]
In 1922, the Royal Anandapur Tea Company constructed a steam-train route which passed through the yeti's temple and the Forbidden Mountain as a short route to trading posts near Mount Everest. In 1933, the yeti began attacking the tea-trains as they made their routes through the Himalayas though these attacks were shrouded in secrecy. In 1934, the Royal Anandapur Railway officially closed off the train-tracks. The locals of Anandapur would blame these attacks on the westerners (particularly English) who continued to increase their population in the captured kingdom.
Also in the 1930s, a colonial explorer's guild known as the League of Adventurers attempted to build a, "Fixed Rope Transit System" through the Himalayas only to be attacked and chased out by the yeti. Around 1938, members of another colonial organization known as the Society of Explorers and Adventurers is believed to have investigated the yeti following the circulation of certain stories of Anandapur and the Forbidden Mountain. This expedition was headed by one Captain Mary Oceaneer to an unknown outcome.
Expedition Everest[]
In 1982, a mountaineering expedition journeyed onto the Forbidden Mountain. This group was subsequently attacked by the yeti with no known survivors. The wrecked camp of the expedition was later found with a broken camera containing blurry photographs of the cryptid. The artifacts from this lost camp would come to be acquired by Serka Zong cryptozoologist Professor Pema Dorje. Dorje studied the yeti from the tea company's old base-camp as he believed the cryptid provided invaluable insight to supporting local wildlife and culture.
By the 2000s, the old headquarters of the Anandapur Tea Company would be acquired by a conservationist named Professor Pema Dorje and his allies from Conservation International. Dorje performed cryptozoological studies of the yeti and aimed to use his museum to increase the ecological consciousness of those in the region. However, the other half of the building was acquired by the company Himalayan Escapes Tours and Expeditions, an amoral tourism company run by a British man known as, "Bob" and Anandapur man named Norbu.
Around 2005/2006, Norbu and Bob repurposed the old tea-trains to bring their clients from Serka Zong to Mount Everest. Dorje would warn locals and the company about the dangers this posed to no avail. One particular tourist group during or after 2007 would be attacked by the yeti when they happened upon it ripping up the tracks. This tea-train ultimately was able to escape from the monster and returned to Serka Zong.
Development history[]
The Cryptid[]
In real-life, the yeti was the result of American and European mountaineers mistranslating local lore about the Meh-Teh, an archetypal wild-man myth based on Himalayan Brown Bears (with many versions of the story desribing the Meh-Teh as being a human/bear hybrid, giant bear, or having names derived from local words for Himalayan Brown Bears). Western mountaineers would mistranslate the Sherpa given name of, "The Wild Man {or Bear Man} of the Snows" as, "The Abominable Snowman" and popularize the creature as the pseudo-scientific depiction of an undiscovered great-ape. This ape depiction was influenced by a trend of remodelling, "Wild Man" myths to resemble undiscovered Great Apes as a result of eugenics proposers believing different human races came from different specieis of great apes, inventing great ape cryptids in regions where they were not native to rationalize this. In actual scientific research, the Yeti's existence has been disproven as misidentifications of bears in snowy climates at high altitudes, samples of bear body parts (occasionally with other animals), and bear-tracks elongated in the snow by winds.
Expedition Everest[]
Expedition Everest is an attraction derived from the classic Disneyland attraction Matterhorn Bobsleds. This attraction featured its own audio-animatronic yeti character nicknamed, "Harold", albeit here native to the Matterhorn in Switzerland and far more cartoony (presumably of a completely seperate species). Expedition Everest's yeti was inspired by speculative-biology of what a real yeti could look like and so was inspired by local wildlife and the extinct Gigantopithecus ape. While once one of Disney's most impressive audio-animatronic figures, the figure malfunctioned and had to be shut down then placed into a static, "B-mode" where a fan and strobe-light create the illusion of movement. This version of the figure has been nicknamed by fans as, "The Disco Yeti", a fan-name often referenced by Disney such as in posters for Anandapur's "Dancing Yeti Inn".
Jungle Cruise appearances[]
Jungle Cruise[]
The yeti is indirectly referenced in the queue for the Jungle Cruise in the Magic Kingdom. In Alberta Falls' office in the Amazon River Base is a post-card addressed to her from Captain Mary Oceaneer of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. The second-half of this post-card has Oceaneer mention sending members of the society to Anandapur and the Forbidden Mountain to investigate, "some strange stories", implied to be related to the yeti.[2]
Skipper Canteen[]
In the library of the Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen there is a book titled, "Everest Expedition: In Search of the Yeti" written by Harrison Hightower III.
Wilderness Explorers[]
There are missions revolving around the folklore of the yeti in the Wilderness Explorers handbook. One of the badges is the Yeti Badge and cartoonish illustrations of the creature appear on this badge and in their book.
Other connections[]
Indiana Jones[]
In the Indiana Jones cannon, Marion Ravenwood once happened upon the footprints of a yeti in the Himalayas in 1934.
Tower of Terror[]
Harrison Hightower III who wrote the book on the creature in the Skipper Canteen is a villainous colonial explorer originating from this attraction.
Other appearances[]
Camp Discovery[]
Disney's Blizzard Beach[]
Expedition Everest[]
Trivia[]
- The yeti's Matterhorn counterpart was created by recycling animatronic gorillas from Disneyland's Jungle Cruise.
- In-universe, the yeti is sometimes connected to the extinct Gigantopithecus ape.
- A Tibbetan mask in Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar greatly resembles the yeti masks in Anandapur.[3]
Gallery[]
