A member of team that spotted 'Yeti footprint' dies

A member of the army's mountaineering team that spotted the “Yeti” footprint died while descending from the peak of Mt Makalu, which is considered one of the most dangerous and challenging peaks to summit.

Naik Narayan Singh, a member of the team that reached the top of the 8,485 m peak on Thursday, passed away as he was climbing downhill from the summit point to camp-4, the first camp during the descent, an army spokesperson said in a statement.

The 18-member mountaineering team hit international headlines when it claimed to have stumbled upon the footprints of the mythical creature Yeti in the icy heights of the Himalayas.

The team discovered huge footprints of a single foot on April 9 at Makalu base camp in Nepal.

While the army said that it would submit the photographs and video to the “subject matter experts” on the team's return to India, previous studies suggest that such footprints were probably created by mountain bears because of their particular walking style.

The army spokesperson said that Singh in the past had taken part in other mountaineering expeditions— last year he had successfully summited Mt Kamet.

Singh, who hails from Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh, joined the army in 2002 and is survived by his wife and three young children.