Incident #1001140
Missoula, Ravalli Cty, Montana
Sep 1974
Account
Chris Tobias, Diane Stringen and Kathy Mudd were in a group of five climbing St. Mary's Peak. Shortly after Chris came out above the tree line, 400 yards from the top, he looked back and saw two figures he took for the two girls emerging from the trees. After a few steps he looked back again and the creatures had travelled 30 or 40 yards. Heading towards him about 200 yards away were two black figures 7 feet tall and at least 3 feet across the shoulders, moving smoothly across rugged terrain, more gracefully and faster than a human could. At about 150 yards they veered off and dropped out of sight in a box canyon Northeast of the peak. Later Diane and Kathy said they had also seen two big, black, hairy figures above them on the ridge. No tracks on the rocky surface.
When
- Month
- Sep
- Year
- 1974
- Season
- fall
- Time of Day
- afternoon
- Duration
- considerable
Where
- State / province
- Montana
- County
- Ravalli Cty
- Nearest Town
- Missoula
- Direction from Town
- South Southwest
- Distance from Town
- 28
- Population of Town
- 34000
- Elevation/Altitude
- 85
- Latitude
- 46304-
- Longitude
- 114142-
What was seen
- Individuals
- two large, sex unknown
- Total Individuals
- 2
- Population Status
- wild
- First Seen
- in
- Terrain Object
- open
- Near or/at
- trees
- Super Human Action
- Walked too fast for human
- Shot Hit
- No
- Tracks
- not found
Witnesses
- Witness(es) Sex
- Male
- Report type
- 1st person
Setting
- Terrain
- alpine
- Exact Terrain
- ridge
- Slope
- steep
- Substratum
- solid rock
- Cover
- moderate
- Tree size
- mostly small
- Tree condition
- mostly mature
- Tree type
- coniferous
- General
- none
- General undergrowth
- none
Weather and light
- Lighting
- daylight
- Visibility Index
- 5
Source
- Source
- Bitterroot Journal quoting Chris Tobias. Also Miss
- Source Type
- newspaper
- Source Date
- DEC 1975
- Source reliability
- 7
- Incident reliablility
- 6
- Jwg file date
- DEC 1975
- Incident type
- 1
Creature description
- Hair Covered
- yes
- Height
- 7 ft
- Build
- very heavy
- Posture
- erect
- Hair Colour
- black
- Shoulders
- wide
- Movement
- walking
- Later Movement
- turned right, disappeared
- Movement re observer
- towards observer
- Reaction
- ignored
- Knees
- always bent
- Other Unusual Y/N
- Yes
- Describe Unsual
- Walk was much more graceful than human walk, no bobbing up and down.
- Position when first seen
- erect
Witness
- Sex
- Both sexes
- Witness Saw with
- naked eye
- Observer Was
- hiking
- Moving Y/N
- Yes
- Position
- upright
- Making Noise Y/N
- Yes
- Farthest horizontal distance
- 200 yards
- Action on sighting
- studied
- No of witnesses
- 3
- Age
- 21 to 30