In Season 2, Josh took the DT team to the Himalayas in search of the Bhutan Yeti. During the investigation, he and his team came across footprints near a river. They saw one perfect and two partial footprints near each other. They took castings and measured the distance between impressions. They figured that the creature who made the impressions was over six feet tall and weighed between 300 and 400 pounds. They also ruled out a hoax and a bear given the shape and size of the prints, and distance between them. It was concluded that the impressions were made by a creature of unknown origin, possibly a Sasquatch, which thrilled Josh.
The Yeti, by DT:
“First reported in 1832 in Nepal, the large, bipedal, shaggy yet manlike creature has been sighted ever since. Much as Sasquatch was seen around North America, his Asian "cousin" has been suspected to be wandering all across the land. The frequency of his sightings increased as more and more people scaled the Himalayan Mountains, notably Mount Everest.
While never quite captured on camera, people have spotted his shape and even what they believe to be footprints. Researchers have studied the reports for years and years, and several have recently begun to suspect that the Yeti might actually be a more familiar animal. Their principal argument on that point is that "yeti" seems to be a mistranslation of the word "meti" from a local dialect that means "bear".
In this season 3 finale, (already?), he takes the new DT team back to the Himalayas in search of the Bhutan Yeti once more. This 10 day expedition will follow sightings of the Yeti. These sightings have occurred in the remote areas surrounding Bhutan, with most occurring in the warmer months.
They flew first to Bangkok, Thailand, and then to Paro, Bhutan. With Mt. Everest in the background, their plane landed in the most remote airport in the world nestled between the mountains. Their translator, Karma, gave each team member a traditional scarf and then they were on their way. They headed to the capital city where televisions did not exist there until 1999. Setting out through this country is by invitation only and Josh felt honored to be able to explore there. They walked around and ended up at the Nature Conservation Division where Dr. Sangay Wangchuk tells them that the area is full of wilderness and the entire country is dedicated to the national parks. The majority of its citizens believes in the yeti and are afraid of it. Before leaving he shows Josh his collection of Yeti footprints he proudly displays on the wall. They next met up with a local author, Kunzang Choden, who collected various stories about the Yeti. She tells Josh that the Yeti lives at the very high altitude. From Thimpau, Bhutan they travel 17 hours across curvy mountain roads to Trashigang. From there they would have a two day hike to they Yeti preserve to Sakteng where they would set up camp and investigate. Along the way they stop at a monastery to speak with a monk, Zacco Tashy, who claims to have heard the creatures call. Before arriving at their finally destination, they are met by a roving ceremony to ward of evil spirits and creatures. They join in on the roadside ritual, and then in the morning the owner of the lodging showed them vertebra bones she claimed was from a Yeti. As they take off further down the road, it was washed out so they pumped up the rafts and headed down stream. Poor Bicha almost fell over board.
After hiking a few more miles they finally arrived at an open field and set up base camp. The cameras were all set up and Josh, Mike and Evan did a sweep of the perimeter, while Jael, Bicha and Gabe explored the area adjacent to camp. Josh picked up something on the flir on the other side of the river and needed to cross an old wood bridge to get there. While crossing Josh slipped and busted a hole in the bridge under his foot. Meanwhile, Jael and Bicha hear growling and branches breaking. Bicha saw something run past and they found hair on a tree. They also found scratch marks on a tree near where the hairs were found. They collected the evidence.
Back to base camp to rest before another day of investigation. The next day they continued to hike east at higher altitudes to the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, the heart of Yeti territory. More eyewitness sightings have been reported there. They meet up with a farmer, Leki, who tells them that a Yeti ransacked his village and took some of the kids away. He told them to continue to travel east near a river where the Yeti is usually seen. They came to an area where they needed their climbing gear to get down to where they needed to be. Safely on the ground they continued until they found the area that the farmer told them to go. After setting up base camp, Josh, Jael, Mike and Evan headed downstream where they discover a big cave. Josh uses the thermal camera and they noticed branches set up like a nest and they even found hair samples. After bagging the samples, Josh heads inside the cave with Evan while Jael and Mike hang outside and investigate. Jael squeezes inside a small chamber and finds nothing while Josh explores the cave. Finding nothing they head out and continue searching.
Meanwhile Gabe and Bicha are doing another investigation and see eyes off in the distance and something moving up the cliff. They come across a cave where Gabe checks it out and sees scratches on the rocks while in there. They head down river but get stopped by a cliff.
Back with Josh and team he sees an animal on the flir, big and it was moving. He sees it again and they give chase to whatever it was. They find a leg of a deer that looked like it was just bitten off. They decide to head back to the river and hear rocks moving. There is a steep drop to get to the river. They capture the heat signature again. They find a bridge with a bucket to get across and Josh talks Jael into getting in with him. She did not want to go and tells him that he is crazy. They stopped in the middle where Josh pulls them to the other side. After jumping out, they run to the area where the thermal hit was caught. No way to get around and finding a dead end, they headed back to base camp. They let the cameras roll all night while sleeping. They headed out the next day for the four day journey back to western Bhutan.
Back in Los Angeles, Josh took the vertebra photo evidence to Dr. Jim Dines to find out the origin of the bones. He told Josh that they were probably a lower vertebra from a mammal and it matched the vertebra of a black bear. Next Josh heads to Houston Texas to see the results from the hair samples. He arrives at the diagnostic lab in Timpson. He sat down with Dr. Melba Ketchum, an experienced forensic analysis. She told Josh that she usually wasn't too excited about getting the samples because she has seen many like it. However, after running the samples through the database she determined that the hairs tested high on the human panels, is from a primate and is from an unknown species because it didn't match any known primate samples. Josh scores again!
