Josh Gates really wants to find a Yeti — so much so that the “Expedition Unknown” host is willing to fly into Nepal’s deadly Lukla air strip for the one-in-a-billion chance at an actual sighting (you know, since they don’t exist).
TheWrap has your exclusive first look at Wednesday’s harrowing trip there — the landing is much bumpier than anything readers have likely experienced at LAX. Watch the video above, which ends in a cliffhanger. Spoiler alert: Josh lives, or else we wouldn’t have the below quote (and Travel Channel would probably not be so enthusiastic to get the clip out there).
“The flight to the town of Lukla in Nepal is as exciting (and terrifying) as summiting a Himalayan peak,” host and executive producer Gates told TheWrap. “I travel the world for a living, and it’s definitely the sketchiest runway and landing I’ve ever experienced. But even though the flight is harrowing, it ends in this incredible high-altitude village and the gateway to the Everest region. So, if you don’t mind a little white-knuckle air travel, it’s well worth it.”
For centuries, eyewitnesses have claimed run-ins with the so-called abominable snowman, which is believed to roam the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas. But without conclusive evidence (because, again, it’s not real), the question remains: Is the Yeti fact or folklore? (One more time: folklore.)
On Travel Channel’s four-week special event, “Expedition Unknown: Hunt for the Yeti” — which begins Wednesday, October 5, at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT — Gates seeks the definitive answer (which we’ve technically already got — OK, we’re done).
“The Yeti story is especially personal to me, if it’s even possible to get personal with an elusive hairy monster!” Gates said. “There have been so many firsthand accounts of the Yeti, and several years ago, I had my own encounter. I discovered an unusual set of footprints high in the Himalayas. It was an incredible and confounding find; we cast the print and donated it to the Yeti museum at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where it’s now on display. The experience has never left me, and now I’m heading back into the mountains to determine what exactly left those tracks.”