Yeti. Kazakhstan

The autumn of 1980 in the city of Leninogorsk (now Ridder) in the Altai was just beginning, and there was good sunny weather. I was thirteen years old. My father returned from work, and we went to pick mushrooms on the outskirts of the city, because of the peculiarities of the terrain divided into several divided areas. The regular bus of the twelfth route took us twenty minutes to the stop "Bor". It was about two hours before dark when we went deeper into the forest. The sun was almost touching the mountains, and the light of the sunset lit up the treetops, creating an amazing picture of burning pines. Mostly there were butterflyfish and blackberries, but more often fly agaric. I walked in front, played around, talked to my father. Suddenly he cut me off abruptly in the middle of a sentence:

"Shut up and go ahead, and hurry up!"

He constantly urged me on, saying that I should get to the bus stop as soon as possible, so as not to miss the bus. I took offense at my father and trotted along the forest path in silence. In front of the road grew a tall pine tree, one of the branches of which overhung the path at a height of about two meters. I jumped up and tried to pull myself up on it. My father yanked me off, grabbed me firmly by the arm, and dragged me almost at a run to the approaching bus.

When I jumped on the bus and looked out the window, I almost screamed in fear. Against the background of the gloomy forest, an even darker humanoid figure of huge stature, covered with black fur, stood out clearly. This creature was leaning with one elbow on the branch of a pine tree, on which I was trying to pull myself up. There was a general exclamation of surprise and horror. The driver also saw the creature. The bus took off so fast that the passengers standing in the cabin fell. At the next stop, Lespromkhoz, the bus didn't even stop.

My father later told me that the creature had been following us at the same distance for about ten minutes. He did not dare to run, and he could not predict my reaction, so he drove me forward, not letting me look back. He forbade me to tell my mother and sister about the meeting, not wanting to worry them. The following spring, we visited that pine tree and, after measuring the distance from the branch to the ground, came to the conclusion that the height of the snowman is almost three meters. Now, as an adult, I understand what my father went through, and I am amazed at his endurance and wisdom.