Widespread fame overtook the local Yeti in November in areas where hunters can enter only after the snow falls. Nobody saw these creatures close. But the fishermen claim that in clear weather they periodically noticed some strange creatures who were equally dexterous making their way through deep snow or along tree branches
According to eyewitnesses, these are individuals of dense constitution with black and red hair and growth from 1.5 to 2 meters. On the snow, they leave footprints the size of a bear, but still, as the hunters assure, fingerprints are clearly visible, not claws.
Greetings from the yeti
The village of Ust-Kabyrza is located 70 kilometers from Tashtagol. In winter, the Azasskaya cave can only be reached by snowmobiles - 40 minutes on the way. The news that you can meet real live yeti here made the cave extremely popular. Officials, deputies and journalists have already visited it … During these visits, the Bigfoot, of course, was hiding. Maybe he was watching us on the sly, but it was not possible to capture him in the photo. There are only huge footprints on the floor of the cave. However, they could have been done by local jokers … There are countless such "greetings from the yeti" all over the world. Impassable thicket, mysterious caves, deaf bodies of water, impassable mountains - such things always awaken the human imagination … But is there any real reason to say that Bigfoot lives in Kuzbass? Or, as they say in Shoria, some dark people?
For an answer, we turned to Valery TOPAKOV, a man who in Ust-Kabyrza is best acquainted with the Shor history, for many years collecting folklore and legends:
- There is, of course, evidence, - says Valery Arsentievich, - it is not clear only why they started talking about it just now. But the Shors have known about him for a long time. Only they call him not the yeti, but the master of the taiga. Legends say that every hunter saw him. Meeting the owner of the taiga brought good luck in hunting and good prey. But talking about what he saw the owner was strictly forbidden. Otherwise, the prey will not be seen. And only the ancient old people, who no longer needed hunting luck, shared their stories of meetings. Twenty years ago, an old hunter, Vasily Savelich, a man of absolute parity and sound mind, told me in detail about the owner. Description … yes, perhaps, it looks like a yeti … Personally, I believe that something like that lives in our area. Maybe not in the Azasskaya cave, but …
- But Shoria is full of tourists! How did it happen that none of them encountered the owner of the taiga?
- Tourists are all no further than Sheregesh. With rare exceptions.
Promotional video:
This is what the entrance to the Azass cave looks like.
Believed in them for centuries
“We really have a lot of places that have not been studied at all,” adds Nikita SHULBAEV, deputy head of the Tashtagol region for national issues. - Everyone knows that there are such places in the vicinity of ski resorts. And the wildest places are much to the south and east. It might not be serious to talk about Bigfoot. But you can't argue with some facts living here. Not so long ago, a signal came from the village of Altamash: they say, a connecting rod bear has appeared. Hunters have arrived, and the tracks are not bearish. Huge, and the shape is not the same. Well what can you say ?! Or the head of one of the zones says that the prisoners found huge footprints in the taiga and then refused to go to those places to work …
We tried to talk in Ust-Kabyrza with Shor hunters. Lazar Kiskorov hunts in the deep taiga, more than sixty killed bears are already behind him, and there are countless elves. He does not speak directly about what he saw Bigfoot. Only evasively. A lot, they say, everyone walks. You will not understand: either a bear, or a man, or a spirit. And the Shors certainly do not doubt the existence of spirits. According to Valery TOPAKOV, it is still customary for spirits to make offerings. They bring food and drink to the forest … True, the assumption that due to the difficult time of the offerings there were fewer and the Bigfoot was starving, the shorets rejected with a laugh:
- What a crisis, this is an ancient tradition. Our people have believed in this for centuries.
To reach the cave, you will need a lot of physical preparation.
Stories about Kuzbass Yeti
Valery TOPAKOV, resident of the village. Ust-Kabyrza, specialist in Shor culture:
-In addition to the legend about the master of the taiga, there are also stories about the master of fire and the mistress of water. The latter, by the way, is most often seen by the Shors in the form of a beautiful woman with long hair up to her feet, emerging from the Mrassu River. There is a fairy tale, as if one day a young wrestler saw how the mistress of the water was combing her hair, took it and tried to grab her. They managed to grab only the comb, and the hostess herself rushed into the river and turned into a water beetle. The guy followed her: he dived headlong and accidentally swallowed a beetle with the water. After that, the young scourer soon died - this is how the mistress of the water punishes those who dare to encroach on her.
Sasha ARBACHAKOVA, third-grade student of the Ust-Kabyrzin school:
- When we go for a walk in the Azasskaya cave area, and I remain alone for a few minutes (Katya, for example, went along a different path), there is a feeling that someone is following me, someone is watching. I turn around - nobody.
Katya, a fifth-grader of the Ust-Kabyrzin school:
- Once my relative Vladimir Petrovich and a friend went to the island of Fyodor Tolstoy for a fishing trip. In the evening, a friend went to the forest for brushwood to light a fire. Vladimir Petrovich heard the splash of water, as if someone was swimming there and went to look. Nothing. Returns back. And there is a creature like a man, but like not. The face is white, some kind of hair grows on the body. He thought it was a convict who had escaped … He offered tea. Instead of answering, the creature turned around and left. “So the fugitive convict must be detained,” it dawned on Vladimir Petrovich. He fired his gun into the air. And at night the unprecedented guest came to the hunters' camp again. But already in a very bad mood: he uprooted trees, overturned the boat. How the hunters survived this terrible meeting - they themselves do not know …
Lyubov, KP reader, Kemerovo:
- About 15 years ago, I often went to rest in Tashtagol. Then they said that Bigfoot lives there. The locals said that he was tall, shaggy, like a monkey. And the most amazing thing: people see this terrible, unpleasant animal appearance when they meet only the first seconds. And then the creature "turns" into someone you know very well. It turns out that the Shor Yeti also have magical abilities ?!
VIEW FROM 6TH FLOOR
In the summer of 2008, residents of one of the regions of Belarus reported a strange creature, similar to a huge monkey, but with a human face. The police assumed that it could be a tall bum. Journalists, lovers of all unidentified, security services began to ransack forests, fields, mountains in search of Bigfoot. Not found. And then the eyewitnesses admitted that they had not seen anyone. And the Yeti was specially thought up in order to scare away competitors-mushroom pickers from neighboring areas. Well, our business is definitely not about mushroom pickers and not about inducing fear. Yes, and a fairy tale about "dark people" - it is more likely to attract tourists to the Azasskaya cave, its surroundings and the village of Ust-Kabyrza itself. And crowds of people willing to pay generously for excursions are always good …
