Destination Truth (2007) s05e07 Episode Script
Hanging Coffins;Kazakh Monster
- On this episode of "Destination Truth".
.
I lead a perilous road trip across the Philippines and braves the dangerous wilderness searching for paranormal activity in hanging coffins.
- In a death defying investigation.
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- Oh, (Bleep)! You okay? My team searches for ghosts while hanging by a thread.
What the hell was that? And we make one of the most shocking paranormal discoveries in "D.
T.
" history.
Oh, my God, look at that.
Next, my team races through Kazakhstan.
In search of Central Asia's Bigfoot.
Climbing along shear cliffs and searching traditional villages for answers.
The truth behind the legend may be closer than we think.
- Oh, my God! Right there! - What'd you see? - (Bleep).
- What'd you see? Hold on! I'm Josh Gates.
In my travels, I've seen some unexplainable things.
.
And I've done some things I can't quite explain.
Now, I've pulled together a team armed with the latest technology.
In search for answers to the world's strangest mysteries.
I'm not sure what's out there waiting for me, but I know what I'm looking for.
The truth.
In a remote valley in the Philippines.
A unique type of burial has been practiced for over two millennium.
All right, so the Igorot people of the Philippines, they believe that the coffins they bury their dead in are notoriously haunted.
That sounds pretty straightforward, so we go find these coffins? Yeah.
The problem is, they're a little bit hard to get to.
How hard? You're not afraid of heights, are you? The coffins are suspended high against cliffs.
Or stacked deep in caves by the Native Igorot tribes people.
It all happens in a place called Echo Valley.
And the entire forest is notoriously haunted.
Thought to possess an incredible spiritual power.
New reports streaming out of the nearby town of Sagada.
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Claim that the locals have been regularly seeing strange lights, unexplained figures.
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And hearing human voices emanating from the cliffs and caves.
The Igorot people have grown to fear the valley, Like tortured hallucinations, violent illness, and fatal accidents.
Reaching this area would push us to our limits as we'd have to drive hundreds of miles on battered roads, cross churning rivers, and scale dizzying cliffs.
Undaunted, we packed up our gear and headed to the Philippines.
To investigate a haunted graveyard unlike any other in the world.
From Los Angeles, we crossed The Pacific flying 7,300 miles to Manila.
So we've got lots of eyewitnesses who have had strange experiences around these hanging coffins and these burial caves.
The problem is, the site is up in Sagada, which is very, very far from Manila.
The drive was sure to be a challenge.
With no airport to the North, there were 400 miles of treacherous mountain roads between us and Sagada.
And I'd do whatever it took to get us there safely.
Josh, I really like how you've covered the sun shades in saran wrap.
Well, you got to.
A lot of people don't know this, the most delicate part of the vehicle.
What if I have chocolate on my fingers and I go to adjust the sun shade? Ruined.
The drive took a brutal two days on the road, but luckily, I've got the best co-pilots in the business.
Can you believe this? Finally, though, we passed into the high mountains and our 4x4 reached Sagada.
A picturesque town perched nearly a mile above sea level.
After 16 hours in the car, we were just happy to stretch our legs.
All right, everybody, this is the local market in Sagada.
These are mostly Igorot people.
So we gear up on supplies here, and then we talk to some eyewitnesses.
Okay.
Let's go shopping.
We walked into the market, near closing to pick up a few supplies for the days ahead.
Do you have a bigger.
.
A bigger bottle of bug spray? Richie improvised some additions to his first aid kit.
Butcher's knife.
Bone saw.
Terrifying.
- Machete.
- Mm-hum.
And a sharpening stone.
Are you preparing for "127 Hours" right now, Richie? And I took a moment to show Ryder my gift of clairvoyance.
All right, Josh, you ready for your psychic test today? Are you kidding me? I'm gifted to a level that most people don't even realize.
- All right.
- Hit me.
Come on.
- First card.
- Lettuce.
Can you feel it right through the card? I can feel it.
Just keep going, I can sense it.
Easy, eggplant.
Carrots.
Spinach.
Is that a Sayote? You don't even know what Sayote is.
I know that I can feel it in my brain right now.
I can also read cards in the reflection of our camera lens.
Chinese cabbage? Unbelievable.
Across town, we met with a local who experienced the supernatural forces at the hanging coffins while hiking.
Why do you think Echo Valley is a haunted place? At a nearby ceramics store, a local potter.
.
Also claimed to have a terrifying encounter.
And tell me about this experience you had when you were down in this cave.
And before leaving, Ryder decided to try her hand at the potter's wheel.
Let's make a pot here, come on.
I wish I'd told you when I was alive that you are an awful, awful pot maker.
Somebody get me Whoopi Goldberg.
After crushing Ryder's artistic dreams, we headed toward Echo Valley.
.
Where we needed to make one more important stop.
If we're going to investigate the hanging coffins, and at the burial caves, especially at night.
We really need the blessing of the community leaders of the traditional Igorot people.
So we're gonna go meet with them, and hopefully get their permission to go to the site.
- Welcome to Sagada.
- Thank you very much.
Upon arrival in the village, the tribe greeted us with a traditional ceremony.
This dance is designed to call forth the spirits in the valley, and once it was over, I sat down with the community leader to get his guidance.
You know, we want to go there and show great respect for the place.
So how would you advise us to proceed? Having gained the permission of the Igorot, we started early the next morning and ventured into Echo Valley.
To reach the coffins, we'd start out by car.
The narrow roads here are literally carved into the cliffs, and leave little room for driver error.
To make matters worse, a recent storm had left the trail in muddy disrepair, hindering our progress.
God, this road is totally washed out from the typhoon.
Hold on.
Come on.
No, that's it.
All right, guys.
We're on foot from here.
Here we go.
We hiked on and made our way to the river that runs through the valley.
World's worst bridge.
You know, this bridge has been on the cover of Insane Bridges Monthly three times.
It's a classic, really.
This natural highway would hopefully lead us right to the hanging coffins.
Josh, I'm confused at why I'm pumping and you're getting to use that electronic thing over there.
Oh, my little car battery hair dryer, unit here? Don't worry about it.
Woo! Feel the burn, Tristant.
If I could have a towel for all the sweat dripping down my face right now, that'd be helpful.
This place just got pounded by a typhoon, so the water level's gonna be high.
Might be some big rapids ahead, everybody keep a wary eye out.
Come on! Hang on! After an hour on the river, we reached the area just below the hanging coffins.
We beached our raft and continued on foot.
So all of this is Echo Valley.
As you can see, it's really linear.
They believe this whole area is rife with spirits.
With the light failing, we established base camp for the night.
And set up infrared surveillance, remote microphones.
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And sensitive trap cameras throughout the area, before striking out on foot to find the coffins and the caves.
You know, most people think that coffins and burial areas are haunted anyway.
But the Igorots specifically believe that.
.
Ghosts would come out of these coffins and hang around in these valleys.
- Josh.
- Yeah? When you die, do you want to be buried.
.
Cremated.
.
Or have a hanging coffin? I don't know, I haven't seen the hanging coffins yet, but the real estate looks pretty good.
Oh, my God.
Careful, careful, careful.
Careful.
You know, the stuff that is hard to translate through the camera is.
.
How muddy and slick this ground is.
- Oh, (Bleep)! - You okay? Ryder! - Oh, (Bleep)! - You okay? - Ryder! - (Bleep)! You okay? - Yeah um, somebody pull me up, I'm like.
.
- Here, here.
I gotcha, I gotcha, I gotcha.
Come on up.
You got it, you got it.
- Step up onto it.
- (Bleep)! You just almost went off that.
There's no trail there.
It's like a 20 foot drop.
- Are you okay? - Yeah.
Guys, I'm hearing something.
- What do you hear? - I'm hearing voices.
They sound like a low chatter, like a pa-pa-pa-pa.
Hello? Let's get down there, come on.
- There's something on the thermal.
- Let me see.
Is it an overhang? Oh, it's a huge cave, look at this.
Looks like it drops down.
Look at the size of this thing.
Wow.
We know the burial cave is linked to another cavern.
If this is the right one, it may go all the way through and spit us out on that side.
- Okay, let's try to get through.
- Yeah, let's try it.
Wow.
I wonder if that's an ominous sign.
Most definitely.
- We should keep on going while it's dry.
- Sounds good.
Holy (Bleep).
There's, like, six coffins up here.
Oh, this is creepy.
You aren't kidding.
This is insane.
These aren't the main hanging coffins.
This must be one of the smaller groupings.
I wonder how they carried these things up here.
That's got to be a herculean task.
They must really love people to do that.
- You guys hear that? - I heard a groan.
- What did you hear? - I heard a groan coming from over there.
I have chills running up my arm right now.
They say that's a sign of spirits and ghosts around you.
Yeah? Sometimes digital cameras can pick up things we can't see with the naked eye.
So I'm gonna go take some pictures over there.
Richie, what do you see over there? That's a skull in there.
And an eye socket.
You see the whole head? You can see the right Zygomatic Arch, which leads to the.
.
The right eye.
- And.
.
- Let's Zygomatic get the hell out of here.
Okay.
All right, one step at a time.
Shh-shh-shh.
Hear that? Oh.
Oh, we got bats.
Oh, my God.
There must be thousands of them.
Listen to those bats.
It's sounds like voices that sound like whispering.
That might also be what some of these folks are hearing.
You know, these bats are in and out of these caves by the thousands.
I mean it's certainly a possibility for some of these accounts.
All right, let's keep moving, come on.
The sound of water is getting louder.
Holy (Bleep)! You gotta see this.
It's an underground waterfall coursing down into a river.
It's gonna get wet.
Very nervous about this.
Nice and slowly through here.
Okay, good.
We're through.
Let's recover the shoes and the bags and the backpacks, keep pressing forward.
Oh, my God, look at this.
This is the Igorot burial cave.
Unbelievable, they're stacked all the way up to the ceiling, there must be hundreds of these coffins.
I mean.
.
This is really the ancient tradition right here, huh? Oh, my God, they're just totally exposed.
Just open Graves.
Let's get an EVP session going.
We must be in the shadow of a hundred coffins here, and there's probably a lot of activity right in here.
Let's kick it off.
Is anybody with us in this cave? We've been told that there's a powerful presence in this cave.
Can you make that presence known? Uh, I didn't do that.
My light just went completely crazy.
I've never seen it do that.
No.
And it just did it again.
You saw that, right? I'm just feeling like, all of a sudden, just really cold.
Okay.
Is that you? Are you affecting her light? Is it possible for you to speak to us? And let us know that you are in this cave.
What? It literally just flashed from record to stop.
Let's try to get a new tape and battery in there quick.
Okay.
If that's you doing that, that's very good.
Can you make a noise for us as well? Are you able to make any sort of noise? Or speak to us so that we know that.
.
Oh, my God, right behind you! Kyle, behind you! Turn around, turn around, turn around.
Are you able to make any sort of noise? Or speak to us so that we know that.
.
Oh, my God, right behind you! Kyle, behind you! Turn around, turn around, turn around.
I just saw a (Bleep) Black mass right behind you.
In between this plant and that wall.
I just saw a person standing there.
Kyle, do you see anything on the scope? I don't see anything, are you sure it wasn't my shadow? I'm positive it wasn't your shadow.
I looked over your shoulder behind that plant, a tall dark figure was standing right behind you, dude.
Right where you're saying there's the coffin right there.
There is a coffin right there, yeah.
It's like either I'm hallucinating or I just saw something.
You want to sit down for a little bit? Just give me a second.
That just freaked me out.
I've never seen him like this.
Tristant for Josh.
Yeah, go for Josh.
Hey, man, I'm seeing a bright light in my IR Camera number two.
Could it be an insect? Could it be somebody with a flashlight? No, it's way to bright to be an insect.
And there's nobody in that area.
Copy that.
We've been having some strange experiences down here in one of the burial caves.
We'll head back out to the surface, see if we can find the source of that light.
We'll let you know what we find.
Copy that.
Alright come on, let's leave the recorders running, see if we can figure out where that light came from.
I got something on thermal.
What do you see? I see coffins, look at this.
Look at this.
Come here.
This is it.
Look at them.
That is unbelievable, they're just bolted right into the side of the cliff face.
We're gonna need to get some ropes rigged in here if we're gonna get up to those things.
We called to Richie, the most experienced climber in the group, and had him and Katy meet us to rig ropes so that he and I could ascend the shear cliff to the hanging coffins.
Okay, here we go.
Looking good, Richie.
God! There's nothing to hold onto up here.
All right, guys, I'm pretty well in position here.
Not a lot of perches, I don't have a lot of room to really maneuver up here.
But I'm definitely on level with the coffins.
Hey, how you doing? Doing good.
How are you doing? I mean, hanging off a wall is bad enough.
To be doing it next to 25 coffins is pretty terrifying.
- Are you ready to kick this off? - Yeah, lets do this.
Okay.
World's scariest EVP session.
.
Starting now.
Nice and quiet.
We've heard that there's a.
.
A powerful presence at these coffins.
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On these cliffs.
Can you make that presence known to us? We don't mean to disturb your resting place.
Can you give us some sign that you're here? Hey Josh, I'm getting a reading right now.
It just climbed to two.
Are you trying to communicate with us? What the hell was that? It sounded like a coffin.
.
It sounded like a coffin was about to open.
Can you give us some sign of your presence? How's it look? Any readings? Nothing.
Oh, I gotta get a new job.
This is a bad position to get freaked out in.
Let's let the recorder roll out for a few more minutes, and we'll.
.
We'll belay back down.
With the coffins not yielding up any other audible noises, and with our fingers too numb to hang on any longer.
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We climbed down to rejoin the rest of the team, packed up our gear.
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And began the long journey home to review our findings.
We began by analyzing the strange noises we heard during the investigation.
- You guys hear that? - I heard a groan.
- What did you hear? - I heard a groan coming from over there.
Oh, wow.
- You hear that? - Yeah.
To me, at first, I thought it was an animal, but you play it again and I don't know what animal could make a sound like that.
It's a really unnatural noise.
In fact, Richie and I heard another strange noise during our EVP session at the hanging coffins.
Listen.
Are you trying to communicate with us? What the hell was that? It sounded like a coffin.
.
It sounded like a coffin was about to open.
You know, the fear factor is already heightened because you're literally perched on a cliff doing this EVP session.
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Then all of a sudden, the trifield goes off and you.
.
You hear something up there.
We then examined our EVP recordings.
There is one other thing we found, though, in the EVP recordings, and this is.
.
This is pretty amazing.
Listen to this.
Is anybody with us in this cave? - Hear that? - That's really strange.
It sounds like it says "me".
Between that and these sort of phantom noises from the coffins, definitely aligns to eyewitness claims, and you know, we had some pretty intense experiences during the EVP session.
Absolutely.
First my flashlight stopped working.
You saw that, right? And then the camera stopped rolling.
And then right after that, I saw something behind Kyle.
Speak to us so that we know.
.
Oh, my God, right behind you! Kyle, behind you! Turn around, turn around, turn around.
I just saw a (Bleep) Black mass right behind you.
If we just step through this frame by frame, it takes a minute for Kyle's camera to swing around, by the time he gets over there, you can see there's nothing visible on the wall.
It wasn't Kyle's shadow, I really saw something down there.
You know we've been doing this for a long time and it's, really rare to see you shook up like that.
For me, this is a really troubling moment.
The camera doesn't see what I saw, but I know that I saw something there.
Finally, we turned to the photos Ryder took in the cave.
In a number of photos, we get this really strange mist.
And it's weird because there was no fog down there at all.
- No.
- It's just showing up in the photos.
And then moments later, we get this.
Oh, my God, look at that.
In a number of photos, we get this really strange mist.
And then moments later, we get this.
Oh, my God, look at that.
That looks like a person in profile, looking across the frame.
That's exactly what I saw.
I could see two arms, a face, it looks like a body.
That looks like an apparition.
That's incredible.
We don't have a flash, you're not seeing a reflection, there was no mist.
This is an incredible find.
This is probably one of the most compelling pieces of photographic evidence we've ever discovered.
That's amazing.
The Igorot people go to great lengths to inter their dead.
Their final resting place is far from cities and difficult to reach.
For those who make it, though, Echo Valley is just that, a place of intense reverberation.
Call it a feeling, a presence, or a fleeting shadow in these sacred caves.
Oh, my God, right behind you.
Kyle, behind you.
Our compelling personal experiences.
And disturbing EVPs helped build the case.
But this astounding photo.
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Represents some of the most chilling paranormal evidence we've ever collected.
And is perhaps a fleeting image of a spirit.
.
That these coffins can't contain.
What the hell was that? Belief in Bigfoot is a world wide phenomenon.
But no place on Earth may have a habitat more suitable for this beast than the country of Kazakhstan.
So there are long-standing rumors in Kazakhstan about a Bigfoot like creature know as the Kiyik Adam.
It seems like the most recent reports are coming out of the Tien Shan Mountains.
A pretty unexplored area East of the city of Almaty.
Yeah, you know, a lot of the eyewitnesses report that this creature is very aggressive.
The Kiyik Adam is a hulking beast with a bad disposition.
Known to attack without provocation.
The territorial creature lives deep in the thickly wooded mountains.
At nine feet tall, it could be the largest Bigfoot species on Earth.
With wide shoulders and powerful limbs.
This massive primate leaves 15 inch footprints in its wake.
It's well camouflaged in thick dark colored fur.
And has lethal fangs for tearing apart its prey.
It's believed that the Kiyik Adam has lived in isolation for ages.
However, a rash of new sightings has locals worried the creature is extending his range and his appetite.
With no time to spare, we packed up our gear and headed to the fringes of the former Soviet Union in hopes of finding this giant of giants.
We left Los Angeles and flew East 7,000 miles to the city of Almaty.
This former Soviet state is the largest land-locked nation in the world.
And despite its rural reputation, Almaty is an impressive modern city.
All right, everybody, welcome to Kazakhstan.
Ryder, what is the number one rule? No "Borat" jokes.
That is correct.
That movie did not go over well here.
- I like.
.
- Easy.
Our first stop was to meet Dr.
Alexander Zhdanko.
A prominent Professor who claims to have had a personal run in with the creature.
So tell me about this encounter that you had.
He was camping in the mountains with his assistant.
And so, as a scientist, what do you think that this was? In our research, we learned about a farmer who claimed to have seen the Kiyik Adam just days earlier.
So we set our sights on a local market where he sold his goods.
Once there, we encountered an assortment of local delicacies.
.
Thank you.
And I encouraged the team to dig in.
Okay, what have we got here? This is the top off of a rooster, is what this is? Yes, yes.
I never knew this was edible.
Turns out it's not actually that edible.
Josh, it looks like they have pony rides here.
Uh, yeah, why don't you come over here.
Why can't we ride the ponies? Yeah, no pony rides today.
We scoured the market and eventually tracked down the farmer.
And I asked him to describe what he saw.
Did the animal make any sort of noise? Did he hear anything.
Do you think that this creature or other creatures are still up in these mountains? With many encounters reported in the distant rural villages, we decided to continue our investigation there.
From Almaty, we would head 160 miles East to the virtually unexplored Tien Shan Mountains.
We drove deep into the hills up breathtaking roads, seeking out locals who have encountered the creature for generations.
In a traditional village, we were directed into a yurt for a formal introduction to the community.
The gracious locals greeted us with open arms and treated us to a performance.
After the show, Adam tried out the musicians' unique instruments.
.
And started an impromptu jam session.
This is full "dueling banjos" right now, Adam, this is for the pride of the nation.
Do not let us down.
For the sake of diplomacy, we called it a draw.
I then took aside the leader of the group, who told me more about the history of the Kiyik Adam.
Where have these recent sightings been coming from? The musician suggested I head next door to speak with a man who hunted in the mountains with the aid of a trained falcon, and who encountered the creature last week.
So tell me about this encounter that you had.
So where, exactly, did the sighting happen? So is it possible for you to take us up there? Okay, great, let's go.
We secured horses from a neighboring farm, and prepared to head into the wilderness.
We know this thing's been sighted here recently, so everybody keep your eyes peeled.
Ryder, how does it look? Nothing yet, Josh.
All right, guys, we're almost to the top of the ridge.
This is the place.
- This is it? - Yeah.
Yes.
So, let's see what he sees today.
According to the falconer, his bird was terrified of the Kiyik Adam.
If the falcon detected any signs of the creature while flying above, it would not land until the beast moved on.
The bird returned to the falconer, indicating that in this area the coast was clear.
All right, guys, no sign of the Kiyik Adam.
We've still got a long ways to go, though.
.
A lot of ground to cover.
Let's get moving.
We continued to search the mountains for any signs of the creature, but after three hours of riding, we came up empty-handed.
We decided to head back to the village below and continue our trip up the mountain in the SUV.
The dirt roads were nearly impassable.
And if we wanted to get to the area where the beast was rumored to live.
We'd need something faster than horses to fall back on.
Luckily, the locals who live deep in these mountains get around using their unique version of a 4x4.
Here we go! Josh for Ryder.
The buggies may have been all terrain, but they were no match for a sheer wall of rock.
It looks like this cliff face skirts the whole edge of this valley.
I think we're going to have to go up and over.
Richie? Yeah, I'll go up and lead this way, traverse across, set up an anchor, and drop a rope down the crack for you guys to come up top.
Sounds good.
Richie methodically worked his way up the precarious cliff.
His only lifeline was creating anchor points ever few feet.
Looking good, Richie.
He's got it.
Oh, my gosh! Richie, hang on! Looking good, Richie.
Oh, my gosh! Richie, hang on! The rock is real greasy up here.
Yeah.
- Nice, Richie.
- Nice work, man.
I'm at the top.
One by one, the team and I made our way up the slippery rock wall.
Tristant, are you doing okay? Doing great, Josh.
Having any trouble with those hipster sunglasses on? No, they actually help.
Okay.
You got it, buddy.
Come on.
According to the locals, these higher elevations were the creature's home.
After a short hike, we found a suitable base camp and prepared for the night ahead.
This is a pretty uncharted environment.
Richie, let's talk about dangers out here.
We have to watch out for roaming bears and packs of wolves.
Also, there are steep ridges and steep rock walls.
So if you take a step the wrong way, a slip and fall can mean a long way down to the bottom.
Tristant, what are we doing for surveillance tonight? We got a number of infrared cameras that are scouring this whole ridge line, plus a thermal.
Yeah you know tonight, it's actually a full moon, so we're going to see a lot more than we're used to seeing.
So it's going to give us a real leg up to see if there's any animals out there moving around.
Ryder, what do you want to do for teams tonight? I think to start.
.
Richie, Katy, Kyle.
.
Why don't you guys head up that dry riverbed? And me, you, Adam, and Dave.
Will head into the forest and see what we can find.
Sounds good.
You guys ready for this? - Yeah.
- Let's do it, gang.
Come on.
The full moon is really lighting up the sky.
The one creature living up here that even has the potential to be a candidate for this thing, I guess, is the bear.
But these people are convinced they've seen something that's a primate.
I think it's so interesting that almost every culture has their form of a Yeti of Bigfoot.
Absolutely.
Guys, once we get in these woods let's try to be as quiet as we can.
We have no idea what's living in here.
Okay.
Dave, behind you! Come here! - Back up, back up, back up.
- What do you see? Dude, I panned over this this thermal for a split second and there was a heat mass right behind you.
And then man, it took off like a shot.
I just caught it at the edge of the thermal for a second.
So whatever that was only had one way to go and that's straight down.
There's no way it's going up these sheer walls.
Let's track it down.
Slow and quiet.
See if we can sneak up on it again.
Whoa.
Oh, you okay? - Oh, my goodness.
- I'm fine.
I'm fine.
You okay? Yeah, this is.
.
I'm trying to get a shot here.
Oh, you meant to do this? This is my move.
I came around to get the shot.
To me it looked like you completely slipped like on a banana peel and fell on your ass.
- Yeah.
- Oh, no, no, no.
See, you have to get into it.
You have to feel it to get the shot.
Got an answer for it all, dude.
Of course I do.
I'm a professional.
Nice work, though.
It's a hell of a shot.
Maniac.
Okay, watch your step, Katy.
Sidestep up this thing if you start to slip.
Now there's rocks falling all over the place.
What was that? I heard it, too.
What did you hear? It sounded like a squeaking kind of whistle.
Oh! It sounds close.
You know we had reports of whistling from the eyewitnesses, and that's definitely what we just heard, was some whistling.
Richie, do you have the night vision goggles? Yeah, let me bring them out.
Hey guys, I can see all the way to the top of this ridge line.
And there's a few groves of trees that are really dense.
I think if we go up there, we might find something.
Let's head that way.
Getting anything on the FLIR? The thermal's got nothing.
Does it feel like it's getting darker? Hey, guys, so much for the light of the full moon.
There's an eclipse.
Yeah, look at that.
It's going to get a lot darker in the next hour or so.
- Josh? - Yeah? It looks like something was through here.
What do you got? There's some trampled grass through here.
Yeah, here as well.
It looks like it goes this way.
Looks pretty fresh.
Yeah, no opportunities for prints.
Yeah.
Doesn't look like any hair or feces left behind, but we do know it's moving in this direction.
Ground shows up warm on the thermal.
Whatever this is came through here a couple minutes ago.
Guys, let's not waste too much time.
We'll get a couple photos of this and keep moving.
Come on.
Does it pick up again? Let's track it back up into the tree line.
Okay.
Be careful, guys.
- Josh? - Yeah? Do you see something right in the distance right there on the thermal? See that? It's almost like a light spot? Yeah, I see it.
Hold on, hold on.
It's moving.
Whatever that is, it's alive.
What the hell is that? Adam are you hearing anything? Not yet.
It's just hovering on the edge of the field.
I can't believe how long this thing's been on thermal for.
It's just sitting right at the edge of that field.
- Hey Josh, I hear something.
- What do you hear? Sounds kind of breathy.
Why don't you get the parabolic out and see if you can hone in on it and get a good recording.
Yeah, I've definitely got it.
It's coming from that direction.
Josh for Tristant, come in.
Go ahead, Josh.
Tristant, we have a clear thermal hit on something at the other end of this large field.
It may be backing into the trees.
Keep your eyes open.
It may be headed toward your cameras.
Okay, copy that.
I'll keep my eyes open.
It's gone.
It's out of frame.
I don't have it any more.
All right, so what do we do? I think we go after it.
The question is how.
We can go straight through the field, but we're totally exposed.
I say we go around back of these trees, stick inside the forest.
See if we can catch up with it that way.
My legs are cramping up from the altitude.
Oh.
Step over to here.
Do you guys smell that? - Like a stink? - Yeah, like a really, really skunky stink.
Yeah.
This is almost exactly where I heard the sound from.
Yeah, this is definitely the tree line.
If that isn't a sign of something being up here, I don't know what is.
Moon's almost gone, guys.
It's getting inky dark up here.
Nice and slow.
Hey, guys, I just saw something move in the bush just over there.
- What did you see? - I have no idea.
Getting anything on the thermal? No I don't have it, but the ridge drops off steep there.
- Oh, my God! Right there! - What did you see? - (Bleep) - What did you see? Hey, guys, I just saw something move in the bush just over there.
- What did you see? - I have no idea.
- Oh, my God! Right there! - What did you see? - (Bleep) - What did you see? Right over here.
Right over here.
Dave, night vision.
Night vision in there.
- Near the crack.
You see that? - Looks a little like a pair of eyes.
- See it? - Holy (Bleep).
What is that? Something caught the reflection on my flashlight for a split second.
- Can you see it? - Yeah, it's catching the I.
R.
- Oh, right there.
Right there.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
It's back there.
It's back there.
Should we really be chasing after this? I don't know if we're chasing it or if it's luring us down here, to be honest with you.
Well.
.
It's gone.
It's out of frame.
I don't have it any more.
Let's follow it.
Let's head that way.
Come on.
We scoured the forest, but whatever we encountered.
.
Backed off and never reemerged.
And with the lunar eclipse waning, the sun wasn't far behind.
By the light of a new day we made the trek back down toward Almaty.
Where we flew home to Los Angeles, to put the puzzle pieces of our investigation together.
We sat down with former Los Angeles Zoo Curator Mike Dee.
And examined the thermal footage of whatever I saw moving behind my cameraman Dave.
Dave, behind you! Come here, come here! Back up, back up.
Stop, stop, stop.
Well I definitely see something, but it's too small to be what the folks up there claim to be seeing.
Yeah I mean this is not a large, bipedal animal.
No.
But what about the strange noises we heard, often attributed to the Kiyik Adam? The locals believe this creature makes a whistling noise.
I'm going to play you two different sounds we heard during the investigation.
Whoa! What's that? What did you hear? It sounded like a squeaking kind of whistle.
Well, it's certainly not from a large animal at all.
My best guess would be avian, or a bird of some type.
Two different types of birds.
Finally, we turned to the large animal we saw in the field.
See that? It's almost like a light spot? Yeah, I see it.
There's something there.
It looks like it could be a tall.
.
A tall creature.
So you've got a number of different species that are found in that area that people could be mistaking.
Could be bear.
Could be an elk.
Could be some deer species.
Or an Ibex.
Do you think it's possible that there could be something unidentified in this area? Oh absolutely.
Just because of the remoteness of it, and it's not an area that a lot of scientist have been in to.
So perhaps there's another chapter in this story still? Uh, let's hope so.
Kazakhstan is a place of extremes.
It's glittering modern city's seem a world away from the humble farmers, cultural heritage, and age old tradition's that have shaped this emerging nation.
But legends die hard.
And on the dusty back roads at soaring heights.
.
- Oh my God! - Richie! It's easy to imagine that there may be something to the these story's.
Dave, behind you! Come here, come here.
With so little of the expansive Tien Shan Mountains explored there's plenty - of room for discovery's still to be made.
.
I lead a perilous road trip across the Philippines and braves the dangerous wilderness searching for paranormal activity in hanging coffins.
- In a death defying investigation.
.
- Oh, (Bleep)! You okay? My team searches for ghosts while hanging by a thread.
What the hell was that? And we make one of the most shocking paranormal discoveries in "D.
T.
" history.
Oh, my God, look at that.
Next, my team races through Kazakhstan.
In search of Central Asia's Bigfoot.
Climbing along shear cliffs and searching traditional villages for answers.
The truth behind the legend may be closer than we think.
- Oh, my God! Right there! - What'd you see? - (Bleep).
- What'd you see? Hold on! I'm Josh Gates.
In my travels, I've seen some unexplainable things.
.
And I've done some things I can't quite explain.
Now, I've pulled together a team armed with the latest technology.
In search for answers to the world's strangest mysteries.
I'm not sure what's out there waiting for me, but I know what I'm looking for.
The truth.
In a remote valley in the Philippines.
A unique type of burial has been practiced for over two millennium.
All right, so the Igorot people of the Philippines, they believe that the coffins they bury their dead in are notoriously haunted.
That sounds pretty straightforward, so we go find these coffins? Yeah.
The problem is, they're a little bit hard to get to.
How hard? You're not afraid of heights, are you? The coffins are suspended high against cliffs.
Or stacked deep in caves by the Native Igorot tribes people.
It all happens in a place called Echo Valley.
And the entire forest is notoriously haunted.
Thought to possess an incredible spiritual power.
New reports streaming out of the nearby town of Sagada.
.
Claim that the locals have been regularly seeing strange lights, unexplained figures.
.
And hearing human voices emanating from the cliffs and caves.
The Igorot people have grown to fear the valley, Like tortured hallucinations, violent illness, and fatal accidents.
Reaching this area would push us to our limits as we'd have to drive hundreds of miles on battered roads, cross churning rivers, and scale dizzying cliffs.
Undaunted, we packed up our gear and headed to the Philippines.
To investigate a haunted graveyard unlike any other in the world.
From Los Angeles, we crossed The Pacific flying 7,300 miles to Manila.
So we've got lots of eyewitnesses who have had strange experiences around these hanging coffins and these burial caves.
The problem is, the site is up in Sagada, which is very, very far from Manila.
The drive was sure to be a challenge.
With no airport to the North, there were 400 miles of treacherous mountain roads between us and Sagada.
And I'd do whatever it took to get us there safely.
Josh, I really like how you've covered the sun shades in saran wrap.
Well, you got to.
A lot of people don't know this, the most delicate part of the vehicle.
What if I have chocolate on my fingers and I go to adjust the sun shade? Ruined.
The drive took a brutal two days on the road, but luckily, I've got the best co-pilots in the business.
Can you believe this? Finally, though, we passed into the high mountains and our 4x4 reached Sagada.
A picturesque town perched nearly a mile above sea level.
After 16 hours in the car, we were just happy to stretch our legs.
All right, everybody, this is the local market in Sagada.
These are mostly Igorot people.
So we gear up on supplies here, and then we talk to some eyewitnesses.
Okay.
Let's go shopping.
We walked into the market, near closing to pick up a few supplies for the days ahead.
Do you have a bigger.
.
A bigger bottle of bug spray? Richie improvised some additions to his first aid kit.
Butcher's knife.
Bone saw.
Terrifying.
- Machete.
- Mm-hum.
And a sharpening stone.
Are you preparing for "127 Hours" right now, Richie? And I took a moment to show Ryder my gift of clairvoyance.
All right, Josh, you ready for your psychic test today? Are you kidding me? I'm gifted to a level that most people don't even realize.
- All right.
- Hit me.
Come on.
- First card.
- Lettuce.
Can you feel it right through the card? I can feel it.
Just keep going, I can sense it.
Easy, eggplant.
Carrots.
Spinach.
Is that a Sayote? You don't even know what Sayote is.
I know that I can feel it in my brain right now.
I can also read cards in the reflection of our camera lens.
Chinese cabbage? Unbelievable.
Across town, we met with a local who experienced the supernatural forces at the hanging coffins while hiking.
Why do you think Echo Valley is a haunted place? At a nearby ceramics store, a local potter.
.
Also claimed to have a terrifying encounter.
And tell me about this experience you had when you were down in this cave.
And before leaving, Ryder decided to try her hand at the potter's wheel.
Let's make a pot here, come on.
I wish I'd told you when I was alive that you are an awful, awful pot maker.
Somebody get me Whoopi Goldberg.
After crushing Ryder's artistic dreams, we headed toward Echo Valley.
.
Where we needed to make one more important stop.
If we're going to investigate the hanging coffins, and at the burial caves, especially at night.
We really need the blessing of the community leaders of the traditional Igorot people.
So we're gonna go meet with them, and hopefully get their permission to go to the site.
- Welcome to Sagada.
- Thank you very much.
Upon arrival in the village, the tribe greeted us with a traditional ceremony.
This dance is designed to call forth the spirits in the valley, and once it was over, I sat down with the community leader to get his guidance.
You know, we want to go there and show great respect for the place.
So how would you advise us to proceed? Having gained the permission of the Igorot, we started early the next morning and ventured into Echo Valley.
To reach the coffins, we'd start out by car.
The narrow roads here are literally carved into the cliffs, and leave little room for driver error.
To make matters worse, a recent storm had left the trail in muddy disrepair, hindering our progress.
God, this road is totally washed out from the typhoon.
Hold on.
Come on.
No, that's it.
All right, guys.
We're on foot from here.
Here we go.
We hiked on and made our way to the river that runs through the valley.
World's worst bridge.
You know, this bridge has been on the cover of Insane Bridges Monthly three times.
It's a classic, really.
This natural highway would hopefully lead us right to the hanging coffins.
Josh, I'm confused at why I'm pumping and you're getting to use that electronic thing over there.
Oh, my little car battery hair dryer, unit here? Don't worry about it.
Woo! Feel the burn, Tristant.
If I could have a towel for all the sweat dripping down my face right now, that'd be helpful.
This place just got pounded by a typhoon, so the water level's gonna be high.
Might be some big rapids ahead, everybody keep a wary eye out.
Come on! Hang on! After an hour on the river, we reached the area just below the hanging coffins.
We beached our raft and continued on foot.
So all of this is Echo Valley.
As you can see, it's really linear.
They believe this whole area is rife with spirits.
With the light failing, we established base camp for the night.
And set up infrared surveillance, remote microphones.
.
And sensitive trap cameras throughout the area, before striking out on foot to find the coffins and the caves.
You know, most people think that coffins and burial areas are haunted anyway.
But the Igorots specifically believe that.
.
Ghosts would come out of these coffins and hang around in these valleys.
- Josh.
- Yeah? When you die, do you want to be buried.
.
Cremated.
.
Or have a hanging coffin? I don't know, I haven't seen the hanging coffins yet, but the real estate looks pretty good.
Oh, my God.
Careful, careful, careful.
Careful.
You know, the stuff that is hard to translate through the camera is.
.
How muddy and slick this ground is.
- Oh, (Bleep)! - You okay? Ryder! - Oh, (Bleep)! - You okay? - Ryder! - (Bleep)! You okay? - Yeah um, somebody pull me up, I'm like.
.
- Here, here.
I gotcha, I gotcha, I gotcha.
Come on up.
You got it, you got it.
- Step up onto it.
- (Bleep)! You just almost went off that.
There's no trail there.
It's like a 20 foot drop.
- Are you okay? - Yeah.
Guys, I'm hearing something.
- What do you hear? - I'm hearing voices.
They sound like a low chatter, like a pa-pa-pa-pa.
Hello? Let's get down there, come on.
- There's something on the thermal.
- Let me see.
Is it an overhang? Oh, it's a huge cave, look at this.
Looks like it drops down.
Look at the size of this thing.
Wow.
We know the burial cave is linked to another cavern.
If this is the right one, it may go all the way through and spit us out on that side.
- Okay, let's try to get through.
- Yeah, let's try it.
Wow.
I wonder if that's an ominous sign.
Most definitely.
- We should keep on going while it's dry.
- Sounds good.
Holy (Bleep).
There's, like, six coffins up here.
Oh, this is creepy.
You aren't kidding.
This is insane.
These aren't the main hanging coffins.
This must be one of the smaller groupings.
I wonder how they carried these things up here.
That's got to be a herculean task.
They must really love people to do that.
- You guys hear that? - I heard a groan.
- What did you hear? - I heard a groan coming from over there.
I have chills running up my arm right now.
They say that's a sign of spirits and ghosts around you.
Yeah? Sometimes digital cameras can pick up things we can't see with the naked eye.
So I'm gonna go take some pictures over there.
Richie, what do you see over there? That's a skull in there.
And an eye socket.
You see the whole head? You can see the right Zygomatic Arch, which leads to the.
.
The right eye.
- And.
.
- Let's Zygomatic get the hell out of here.
Okay.
All right, one step at a time.
Shh-shh-shh.
Hear that? Oh.
Oh, we got bats.
Oh, my God.
There must be thousands of them.
Listen to those bats.
It's sounds like voices that sound like whispering.
That might also be what some of these folks are hearing.
You know, these bats are in and out of these caves by the thousands.
I mean it's certainly a possibility for some of these accounts.
All right, let's keep moving, come on.
The sound of water is getting louder.
Holy (Bleep)! You gotta see this.
It's an underground waterfall coursing down into a river.
It's gonna get wet.
Very nervous about this.
Nice and slowly through here.
Okay, good.
We're through.
Let's recover the shoes and the bags and the backpacks, keep pressing forward.
Oh, my God, look at this.
This is the Igorot burial cave.
Unbelievable, they're stacked all the way up to the ceiling, there must be hundreds of these coffins.
I mean.
.
This is really the ancient tradition right here, huh? Oh, my God, they're just totally exposed.
Just open Graves.
Let's get an EVP session going.
We must be in the shadow of a hundred coffins here, and there's probably a lot of activity right in here.
Let's kick it off.
Is anybody with us in this cave? We've been told that there's a powerful presence in this cave.
Can you make that presence known? Uh, I didn't do that.
My light just went completely crazy.
I've never seen it do that.
No.
And it just did it again.
You saw that, right? I'm just feeling like, all of a sudden, just really cold.
Okay.
Is that you? Are you affecting her light? Is it possible for you to speak to us? And let us know that you are in this cave.
What? It literally just flashed from record to stop.
Let's try to get a new tape and battery in there quick.
Okay.
If that's you doing that, that's very good.
Can you make a noise for us as well? Are you able to make any sort of noise? Or speak to us so that we know that.
.
Oh, my God, right behind you! Kyle, behind you! Turn around, turn around, turn around.
Are you able to make any sort of noise? Or speak to us so that we know that.
.
Oh, my God, right behind you! Kyle, behind you! Turn around, turn around, turn around.
I just saw a (Bleep) Black mass right behind you.
In between this plant and that wall.
I just saw a person standing there.
Kyle, do you see anything on the scope? I don't see anything, are you sure it wasn't my shadow? I'm positive it wasn't your shadow.
I looked over your shoulder behind that plant, a tall dark figure was standing right behind you, dude.
Right where you're saying there's the coffin right there.
There is a coffin right there, yeah.
It's like either I'm hallucinating or I just saw something.
You want to sit down for a little bit? Just give me a second.
That just freaked me out.
I've never seen him like this.
Tristant for Josh.
Yeah, go for Josh.
Hey, man, I'm seeing a bright light in my IR Camera number two.
Could it be an insect? Could it be somebody with a flashlight? No, it's way to bright to be an insect.
And there's nobody in that area.
Copy that.
We've been having some strange experiences down here in one of the burial caves.
We'll head back out to the surface, see if we can find the source of that light.
We'll let you know what we find.
Copy that.
Alright come on, let's leave the recorders running, see if we can figure out where that light came from.
I got something on thermal.
What do you see? I see coffins, look at this.
Look at this.
Come here.
This is it.
Look at them.
That is unbelievable, they're just bolted right into the side of the cliff face.
We're gonna need to get some ropes rigged in here if we're gonna get up to those things.
We called to Richie, the most experienced climber in the group, and had him and Katy meet us to rig ropes so that he and I could ascend the shear cliff to the hanging coffins.
Okay, here we go.
Looking good, Richie.
God! There's nothing to hold onto up here.
All right, guys, I'm pretty well in position here.
Not a lot of perches, I don't have a lot of room to really maneuver up here.
But I'm definitely on level with the coffins.
Hey, how you doing? Doing good.
How are you doing? I mean, hanging off a wall is bad enough.
To be doing it next to 25 coffins is pretty terrifying.
- Are you ready to kick this off? - Yeah, lets do this.
Okay.
World's scariest EVP session.
.
Starting now.
Nice and quiet.
We've heard that there's a.
.
A powerful presence at these coffins.
.
On these cliffs.
Can you make that presence known to us? We don't mean to disturb your resting place.
Can you give us some sign that you're here? Hey Josh, I'm getting a reading right now.
It just climbed to two.
Are you trying to communicate with us? What the hell was that? It sounded like a coffin.
.
It sounded like a coffin was about to open.
Can you give us some sign of your presence? How's it look? Any readings? Nothing.
Oh, I gotta get a new job.
This is a bad position to get freaked out in.
Let's let the recorder roll out for a few more minutes, and we'll.
.
We'll belay back down.
With the coffins not yielding up any other audible noises, and with our fingers too numb to hang on any longer.
.
We climbed down to rejoin the rest of the team, packed up our gear.
.
And began the long journey home to review our findings.
We began by analyzing the strange noises we heard during the investigation.
- You guys hear that? - I heard a groan.
- What did you hear? - I heard a groan coming from over there.
Oh, wow.
- You hear that? - Yeah.
To me, at first, I thought it was an animal, but you play it again and I don't know what animal could make a sound like that.
It's a really unnatural noise.
In fact, Richie and I heard another strange noise during our EVP session at the hanging coffins.
Listen.
Are you trying to communicate with us? What the hell was that? It sounded like a coffin.
.
It sounded like a coffin was about to open.
You know, the fear factor is already heightened because you're literally perched on a cliff doing this EVP session.
.
Then all of a sudden, the trifield goes off and you.
.
You hear something up there.
We then examined our EVP recordings.
There is one other thing we found, though, in the EVP recordings, and this is.
.
This is pretty amazing.
Listen to this.
Is anybody with us in this cave? - Hear that? - That's really strange.
It sounds like it says "me".
Between that and these sort of phantom noises from the coffins, definitely aligns to eyewitness claims, and you know, we had some pretty intense experiences during the EVP session.
Absolutely.
First my flashlight stopped working.
You saw that, right? And then the camera stopped rolling.
And then right after that, I saw something behind Kyle.
Speak to us so that we know.
.
Oh, my God, right behind you! Kyle, behind you! Turn around, turn around, turn around.
I just saw a (Bleep) Black mass right behind you.
If we just step through this frame by frame, it takes a minute for Kyle's camera to swing around, by the time he gets over there, you can see there's nothing visible on the wall.
It wasn't Kyle's shadow, I really saw something down there.
You know we've been doing this for a long time and it's, really rare to see you shook up like that.
For me, this is a really troubling moment.
The camera doesn't see what I saw, but I know that I saw something there.
Finally, we turned to the photos Ryder took in the cave.
In a number of photos, we get this really strange mist.
And it's weird because there was no fog down there at all.
- No.
- It's just showing up in the photos.
And then moments later, we get this.
Oh, my God, look at that.
In a number of photos, we get this really strange mist.
And then moments later, we get this.
Oh, my God, look at that.
That looks like a person in profile, looking across the frame.
That's exactly what I saw.
I could see two arms, a face, it looks like a body.
That looks like an apparition.
That's incredible.
We don't have a flash, you're not seeing a reflection, there was no mist.
This is an incredible find.
This is probably one of the most compelling pieces of photographic evidence we've ever discovered.
That's amazing.
The Igorot people go to great lengths to inter their dead.
Their final resting place is far from cities and difficult to reach.
For those who make it, though, Echo Valley is just that, a place of intense reverberation.
Call it a feeling, a presence, or a fleeting shadow in these sacred caves.
Oh, my God, right behind you.
Kyle, behind you.
Our compelling personal experiences.
And disturbing EVPs helped build the case.
But this astounding photo.
.
Represents some of the most chilling paranormal evidence we've ever collected.
And is perhaps a fleeting image of a spirit.
.
That these coffins can't contain.
What the hell was that? Belief in Bigfoot is a world wide phenomenon.
But no place on Earth may have a habitat more suitable for this beast than the country of Kazakhstan.
So there are long-standing rumors in Kazakhstan about a Bigfoot like creature know as the Kiyik Adam.
It seems like the most recent reports are coming out of the Tien Shan Mountains.
A pretty unexplored area East of the city of Almaty.
Yeah, you know, a lot of the eyewitnesses report that this creature is very aggressive.
The Kiyik Adam is a hulking beast with a bad disposition.
Known to attack without provocation.
The territorial creature lives deep in the thickly wooded mountains.
At nine feet tall, it could be the largest Bigfoot species on Earth.
With wide shoulders and powerful limbs.
This massive primate leaves 15 inch footprints in its wake.
It's well camouflaged in thick dark colored fur.
And has lethal fangs for tearing apart its prey.
It's believed that the Kiyik Adam has lived in isolation for ages.
However, a rash of new sightings has locals worried the creature is extending his range and his appetite.
With no time to spare, we packed up our gear and headed to the fringes of the former Soviet Union in hopes of finding this giant of giants.
We left Los Angeles and flew East 7,000 miles to the city of Almaty.
This former Soviet state is the largest land-locked nation in the world.
And despite its rural reputation, Almaty is an impressive modern city.
All right, everybody, welcome to Kazakhstan.
Ryder, what is the number one rule? No "Borat" jokes.
That is correct.
That movie did not go over well here.
- I like.
.
- Easy.
Our first stop was to meet Dr.
Alexander Zhdanko.
A prominent Professor who claims to have had a personal run in with the creature.
So tell me about this encounter that you had.
He was camping in the mountains with his assistant.
And so, as a scientist, what do you think that this was? In our research, we learned about a farmer who claimed to have seen the Kiyik Adam just days earlier.
So we set our sights on a local market where he sold his goods.
Once there, we encountered an assortment of local delicacies.
.
Thank you.
And I encouraged the team to dig in.
Okay, what have we got here? This is the top off of a rooster, is what this is? Yes, yes.
I never knew this was edible.
Turns out it's not actually that edible.
Josh, it looks like they have pony rides here.
Uh, yeah, why don't you come over here.
Why can't we ride the ponies? Yeah, no pony rides today.
We scoured the market and eventually tracked down the farmer.
And I asked him to describe what he saw.
Did the animal make any sort of noise? Did he hear anything.
Do you think that this creature or other creatures are still up in these mountains? With many encounters reported in the distant rural villages, we decided to continue our investigation there.
From Almaty, we would head 160 miles East to the virtually unexplored Tien Shan Mountains.
We drove deep into the hills up breathtaking roads, seeking out locals who have encountered the creature for generations.
In a traditional village, we were directed into a yurt for a formal introduction to the community.
The gracious locals greeted us with open arms and treated us to a performance.
After the show, Adam tried out the musicians' unique instruments.
.
And started an impromptu jam session.
This is full "dueling banjos" right now, Adam, this is for the pride of the nation.
Do not let us down.
For the sake of diplomacy, we called it a draw.
I then took aside the leader of the group, who told me more about the history of the Kiyik Adam.
Where have these recent sightings been coming from? The musician suggested I head next door to speak with a man who hunted in the mountains with the aid of a trained falcon, and who encountered the creature last week.
So tell me about this encounter that you had.
So where, exactly, did the sighting happen? So is it possible for you to take us up there? Okay, great, let's go.
We secured horses from a neighboring farm, and prepared to head into the wilderness.
We know this thing's been sighted here recently, so everybody keep your eyes peeled.
Ryder, how does it look? Nothing yet, Josh.
All right, guys, we're almost to the top of the ridge.
This is the place.
- This is it? - Yeah.
Yes.
So, let's see what he sees today.
According to the falconer, his bird was terrified of the Kiyik Adam.
If the falcon detected any signs of the creature while flying above, it would not land until the beast moved on.
The bird returned to the falconer, indicating that in this area the coast was clear.
All right, guys, no sign of the Kiyik Adam.
We've still got a long ways to go, though.
.
A lot of ground to cover.
Let's get moving.
We continued to search the mountains for any signs of the creature, but after three hours of riding, we came up empty-handed.
We decided to head back to the village below and continue our trip up the mountain in the SUV.
The dirt roads were nearly impassable.
And if we wanted to get to the area where the beast was rumored to live.
We'd need something faster than horses to fall back on.
Luckily, the locals who live deep in these mountains get around using their unique version of a 4x4.
Here we go! Josh for Ryder.
The buggies may have been all terrain, but they were no match for a sheer wall of rock.
It looks like this cliff face skirts the whole edge of this valley.
I think we're going to have to go up and over.
Richie? Yeah, I'll go up and lead this way, traverse across, set up an anchor, and drop a rope down the crack for you guys to come up top.
Sounds good.
Richie methodically worked his way up the precarious cliff.
His only lifeline was creating anchor points ever few feet.
Looking good, Richie.
He's got it.
Oh, my gosh! Richie, hang on! Looking good, Richie.
Oh, my gosh! Richie, hang on! The rock is real greasy up here.
Yeah.
- Nice, Richie.
- Nice work, man.
I'm at the top.
One by one, the team and I made our way up the slippery rock wall.
Tristant, are you doing okay? Doing great, Josh.
Having any trouble with those hipster sunglasses on? No, they actually help.
Okay.
You got it, buddy.
Come on.
According to the locals, these higher elevations were the creature's home.
After a short hike, we found a suitable base camp and prepared for the night ahead.
This is a pretty uncharted environment.
Richie, let's talk about dangers out here.
We have to watch out for roaming bears and packs of wolves.
Also, there are steep ridges and steep rock walls.
So if you take a step the wrong way, a slip and fall can mean a long way down to the bottom.
Tristant, what are we doing for surveillance tonight? We got a number of infrared cameras that are scouring this whole ridge line, plus a thermal.
Yeah you know tonight, it's actually a full moon, so we're going to see a lot more than we're used to seeing.
So it's going to give us a real leg up to see if there's any animals out there moving around.
Ryder, what do you want to do for teams tonight? I think to start.
.
Richie, Katy, Kyle.
.
Why don't you guys head up that dry riverbed? And me, you, Adam, and Dave.
Will head into the forest and see what we can find.
Sounds good.
You guys ready for this? - Yeah.
- Let's do it, gang.
Come on.
The full moon is really lighting up the sky.
The one creature living up here that even has the potential to be a candidate for this thing, I guess, is the bear.
But these people are convinced they've seen something that's a primate.
I think it's so interesting that almost every culture has their form of a Yeti of Bigfoot.
Absolutely.
Guys, once we get in these woods let's try to be as quiet as we can.
We have no idea what's living in here.
Okay.
Dave, behind you! Come here! - Back up, back up, back up.
- What do you see? Dude, I panned over this this thermal for a split second and there was a heat mass right behind you.
And then man, it took off like a shot.
I just caught it at the edge of the thermal for a second.
So whatever that was only had one way to go and that's straight down.
There's no way it's going up these sheer walls.
Let's track it down.
Slow and quiet.
See if we can sneak up on it again.
Whoa.
Oh, you okay? - Oh, my goodness.
- I'm fine.
I'm fine.
You okay? Yeah, this is.
.
I'm trying to get a shot here.
Oh, you meant to do this? This is my move.
I came around to get the shot.
To me it looked like you completely slipped like on a banana peel and fell on your ass.
- Yeah.
- Oh, no, no, no.
See, you have to get into it.
You have to feel it to get the shot.
Got an answer for it all, dude.
Of course I do.
I'm a professional.
Nice work, though.
It's a hell of a shot.
Maniac.
Okay, watch your step, Katy.
Sidestep up this thing if you start to slip.
Now there's rocks falling all over the place.
What was that? I heard it, too.
What did you hear? It sounded like a squeaking kind of whistle.
Oh! It sounds close.
You know we had reports of whistling from the eyewitnesses, and that's definitely what we just heard, was some whistling.
Richie, do you have the night vision goggles? Yeah, let me bring them out.
Hey guys, I can see all the way to the top of this ridge line.
And there's a few groves of trees that are really dense.
I think if we go up there, we might find something.
Let's head that way.
Getting anything on the FLIR? The thermal's got nothing.
Does it feel like it's getting darker? Hey, guys, so much for the light of the full moon.
There's an eclipse.
Yeah, look at that.
It's going to get a lot darker in the next hour or so.
- Josh? - Yeah? It looks like something was through here.
What do you got? There's some trampled grass through here.
Yeah, here as well.
It looks like it goes this way.
Looks pretty fresh.
Yeah, no opportunities for prints.
Yeah.
Doesn't look like any hair or feces left behind, but we do know it's moving in this direction.
Ground shows up warm on the thermal.
Whatever this is came through here a couple minutes ago.
Guys, let's not waste too much time.
We'll get a couple photos of this and keep moving.
Come on.
Does it pick up again? Let's track it back up into the tree line.
Okay.
Be careful, guys.
- Josh? - Yeah? Do you see something right in the distance right there on the thermal? See that? It's almost like a light spot? Yeah, I see it.
Hold on, hold on.
It's moving.
Whatever that is, it's alive.
What the hell is that? Adam are you hearing anything? Not yet.
It's just hovering on the edge of the field.
I can't believe how long this thing's been on thermal for.
It's just sitting right at the edge of that field.
- Hey Josh, I hear something.
- What do you hear? Sounds kind of breathy.
Why don't you get the parabolic out and see if you can hone in on it and get a good recording.
Yeah, I've definitely got it.
It's coming from that direction.
Josh for Tristant, come in.
Go ahead, Josh.
Tristant, we have a clear thermal hit on something at the other end of this large field.
It may be backing into the trees.
Keep your eyes open.
It may be headed toward your cameras.
Okay, copy that.
I'll keep my eyes open.
It's gone.
It's out of frame.
I don't have it any more.
All right, so what do we do? I think we go after it.
The question is how.
We can go straight through the field, but we're totally exposed.
I say we go around back of these trees, stick inside the forest.
See if we can catch up with it that way.
My legs are cramping up from the altitude.
Oh.
Step over to here.
Do you guys smell that? - Like a stink? - Yeah, like a really, really skunky stink.
Yeah.
This is almost exactly where I heard the sound from.
Yeah, this is definitely the tree line.
If that isn't a sign of something being up here, I don't know what is.
Moon's almost gone, guys.
It's getting inky dark up here.
Nice and slow.
Hey, guys, I just saw something move in the bush just over there.
- What did you see? - I have no idea.
Getting anything on the thermal? No I don't have it, but the ridge drops off steep there.
- Oh, my God! Right there! - What did you see? - (Bleep) - What did you see? Hey, guys, I just saw something move in the bush just over there.
- What did you see? - I have no idea.
- Oh, my God! Right there! - What did you see? - (Bleep) - What did you see? Right over here.
Right over here.
Dave, night vision.
Night vision in there.
- Near the crack.
You see that? - Looks a little like a pair of eyes.
- See it? - Holy (Bleep).
What is that? Something caught the reflection on my flashlight for a split second.
- Can you see it? - Yeah, it's catching the I.
R.
- Oh, right there.
Right there.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
It's back there.
It's back there.
Should we really be chasing after this? I don't know if we're chasing it or if it's luring us down here, to be honest with you.
Well.
.
It's gone.
It's out of frame.
I don't have it any more.
Let's follow it.
Let's head that way.
Come on.
We scoured the forest, but whatever we encountered.
.
Backed off and never reemerged.
And with the lunar eclipse waning, the sun wasn't far behind.
By the light of a new day we made the trek back down toward Almaty.
Where we flew home to Los Angeles, to put the puzzle pieces of our investigation together.
We sat down with former Los Angeles Zoo Curator Mike Dee.
And examined the thermal footage of whatever I saw moving behind my cameraman Dave.
Dave, behind you! Come here, come here! Back up, back up.
Stop, stop, stop.
Well I definitely see something, but it's too small to be what the folks up there claim to be seeing.
Yeah I mean this is not a large, bipedal animal.
No.
But what about the strange noises we heard, often attributed to the Kiyik Adam? The locals believe this creature makes a whistling noise.
I'm going to play you two different sounds we heard during the investigation.
Whoa! What's that? What did you hear? It sounded like a squeaking kind of whistle.
Well, it's certainly not from a large animal at all.
My best guess would be avian, or a bird of some type.
Two different types of birds.
Finally, we turned to the large animal we saw in the field.
See that? It's almost like a light spot? Yeah, I see it.
There's something there.
It looks like it could be a tall.
.
A tall creature.
So you've got a number of different species that are found in that area that people could be mistaking.
Could be bear.
Could be an elk.
Could be some deer species.
Or an Ibex.
Do you think it's possible that there could be something unidentified in this area? Oh absolutely.
Just because of the remoteness of it, and it's not an area that a lot of scientist have been in to.
So perhaps there's another chapter in this story still? Uh, let's hope so.
Kazakhstan is a place of extremes.
It's glittering modern city's seem a world away from the humble farmers, cultural heritage, and age old tradition's that have shaped this emerging nation.
But legends die hard.
And on the dusty back roads at soaring heights.
.
- Oh my God! - Richie! It's easy to imagine that there may be something to the these story's.
Dave, behind you! Come here, come here.
With so little of the expansive Tien Shan Mountains explored there's plenty - of room for discovery's still to be made.