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A Canadian hiker has released a video of what he thinks could be Sasquatch in the mountains near Squamish, British Columbia.

The video was shot by Myles Lamont two years ago while he was hiking in the Tantalus Range, north of Vancouver.

Now that it has been posted on YouTube, more than 260,000 people have viewed the footage.

Mr Lamont claims he only uploaded the video for the benefit of a couple of friends.

'We had no intention for it to gather the interest it has. We are not claiming this to be anything other than a strange encounter.'

The video shows a small black dot of a figure reportedly moving up a mountain.'Pretty sure this is Sasquatch down there,' said Mr Lamont on the video recording. 'I can't see it very well. It's this little black dot walking in the middle of the snow in the middle of nowhere.'

Mr Lamont says he was able to view the subject far better than what the video portrays as it was just a simple point and shoot camera. 'The contrast was excellent due to the snow behind the subject,' he says.

The video is intriguing because the shape does appear to be rapidly moving up the mountain.'If that's human why would you walk up that ridge or that snow line?' Mr Lamont asks. 'Why would he not just go straight down?'

'Good thing we brought beers,' he jokes. 'Maybe we can lure him over here. I don't know how high we are, but we're probably close to 7,000 feet and this guy's just scampering up snow lines like it's no big deal.'

He states in his posting that 'the subject was clearly bipedal and was without snowshoes or a backpack and wearing all one colored clothing'.

'Movement over this kind of terrain in soft snow without snowshoes would have been very difficult and the distance travelled over the given time period would have been very fast for a human without proper snow travel gear.'Some other interesting factors are noticed about the unusual recording.

'There was a very steep drop off below where the video was shot, easily a 300m sheer face. We were not equipped with climbing gear and a descent around would have been impossible before nightfall,' Mr Lamont says.

He does not believe that the footage is that of a bear or any other wild animal.

'Perhaps the most reasonable explanation for this video is a very ill prepared hiker, hiking up a difficult section of snowline as opposed to a much easier route, one who is very physically fit and able to cover ground in unusually quick fashion and must have had very large feet as we were breaking through snow crust in just our boots.'

Although some may question the authenticity of Mr Lamonts' video, over the past five years, the Sasquatch Genome Project has spent $500,000 on collecting data and evidence and describe it as a 'serious study.'

The group says they'll continue to collect evidence and video, which will be used in a documentary at a later date.