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Brian
climber
California
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 1, 2015 - 09:43am PT
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http://nickbullock-climber.co.uk/2015/12/01/from-dawn-to-dusk-from-dusk-to-dawn/
Greg was behind. “Bear, aaaaaaargh.” I spun to watch Greg sprint past me and in hot pursuit was a Grizzly. The bear bounded, pulling and pushing the snow with powerful legs. The snow lapped its belly and didn’t appear to slow it. Greg ran out of sight and the carnivorous freight train passed me, snorting and growling and bounding, dusting me with spindrift – it looked at me for a second, and for a second I thought this is it, this is really f*#king it, but in that second the bear had spotted Greg had fallen. I ran uphill as fast as the deep snow allowed. Greg fell on his back and watched the monster closing. It jumped. Screaming and shouting, Greg kicked at Ursus arctos horribilis and it bit straight though his brand new boot as if it were a carpet slipper. It lunged once more and crunched into his shin, placing a paw on his other leg before lifting him off the ground. I’m not sure at this point what other people would do, but Boswell is Boswell and the bear just didn’t appreciate this, he grabbed the bear’s mouth and prized apart the jaws, pushing, and screaming… “Nick, Nick, help, its got me…” I stopped running, and hearing my friend, the terror, the pleading – my survival instinct subdued. I stopped and turned, but I’ll tell the truth, the thought of running back to face the bear armed with only a ski pole slowed me, in fact, armed with a bazooka would have still slowed me, but Greg was shouting my name, how could I just stand. I took steps forward and out of the dark a shape ran at me. I screamed, the skin at the back of my throat tore. But the shape was Greg, screaming and running and shouting. I looked into his ashen face and saw something I had never seen.
We both screamed and ran into the woods following our tracks. The trees and branches surrounded, closed in, caught as we ripped and tore and crawled. “Watch me, watch me, stay with me.” All of the time we waited for the dark to ambush. After what felt like hours, we found our crampons and axes meaning the abseil and the ropes were five minutes away. Keep a look out, Greg packed gear into his bag. I stood, shining my headlamp armed with axes. We took turns shining and looking and brandishing. “If it comes, no running, we stand together and hit the bastard.” “Yeah, were in this together, hit the bastard, hit it as hard as f*#king possible, in the head, in the eye, hit the f*#ker.” But in my mind I saw the alien and I watched it shrug an axe as easy as a person squashes an insect. ‘They mostly come at night… mostly’ When the bags were packed, we took off again, sweating and swearing and shouting and banging axes together while following our trail. But it wasn’t our trail, it was the bears trail, and after an hour we had become totally lost. We knew we had gone wrong. “Lets head for the cliff top.” And we threw ourselves down – down and down, falling over rock steps, powder exploded, and I knew I was about to fall over a cliff and a small part of me hoped I did. We stood on the top of the cliff. Greg shone his torch, I kept watch. We had to retrace, we had to head back towards the bear and the attack, back into the dark woods. We now knew we were too far to the right, we were never going to find the ropes, we were stuck up here, stuck up here with the bear.
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EdwardT
Trad climber
Retired
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Crazy story. Thanks for posting.
Nick Bullock. Awesome name. Sounds like something out of a Raymond Chandler or Robert Ludlum novel.
Glad you guys are okay.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Great story....real suspense.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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What month of the year was it? Bears that wake up in the middle of their winter hibernation and go wandering around are super dangerous. A winter bear is the worst type of encounter, but this bear was obviously not trying to eat your partner. I address that below.
First, NEVER run from a bear. They tend to bluff charge, and if you stand there, especially a party of two, they often back down.
The attack is a pretty typical grizzly attack. They maul you a little, but rarely do they look at you as dinner. Sure, they have eaten people, even in places I used to frequent, but it is rare. The typical grizzly mauling is ripping off half of your scalp. Most people live through grizzly attacks. They could easily kill you, but once they don't view you as a threat, they tend to lose interest.
The leg injury could have been worse. A big grizzly can crush a bowling ball with its bite force. Since he only got puncture wounds, the bear wasn't biting down that hard. If he had wanted to, he could have easily crushed his tib/fib with a forceful bite. You see this a lot with grizzlies. Many attacks are maulings, and it is best to play dead. Black bear attacks on the other hand are often life and death, so fight back with all you have if it is a black bear.
Before heading into grizzly country, it is good to read up on the topic. A couple of things stand out: A solo hiker is most likely to get mauled. From there, increasing group size decreases the likelihood of attack. Even 2 people, if they stand together, cut the odds down tremendously. They rarely attack a group of 3 or larger.
I'm not surprised at how high up the bear was. If this was spring, the bear had likely just left its den, and they are super hungry at this point. In most places, however, humans aren't on the menu.
Where this all goes out the window is in parks where they are protected, such as Yellowstone. I've happily spent many months hiking and sleeping alone in Alaska, where the bears aren't habituated to man, but a place like Yellowstone, where the bears are conditioned to being around man, even associating man with food, is a super creepy situation. So sleeping in Yellowstone gives me the creeps. I've had grizzlies come through my camp and wake me by setting off my alarm of dishes on top of my bear barrel, but they were no big deal....in Alaska.
Bears that are habituated to humans are scary. On the other hand, I've run into a fair number of wild, unhabituated bears in the Brooks Range. They tend to run like a deer when they see or smell you.
Sorry for jumping in here, but I've always been interested in bears.
I've been charged, too. I always had a weapon in Alaska, and never had to use it. Came close one time, but it turned out OK for the bear and me.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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NEVER run from a grizzly bear
Words to survive by. It also might have helped if they had not fallen
into its bivy cave wearing their crampons.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Wow! Quite a story.
If I were cynical, I would re-word BASE104's advice, though. Never run from a grizzly in a party of two if you can't outrun your partner.
;-)
John
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado, Nepal & Okinawa
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Now that is a story!
I once read a book bought in Canada, of how to deal with bears. It is exactly as base104 has said. Play dead with grizzlies and fight like hell against black bears.
One man in northern Japan recently found a black bear reared up on his hind legs right behind him. He turned around and hugged the bear who was so surprised it didn't know what to do. Then they both fell together and rolled down a slope and the bear took off.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Damn, that must have been a pretty horrifying experience. Talk about feeling small and helpless and out of your element!
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labrat
Trad climber
Erik O. Auburn, CA
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I'm continually surprised to hear the advice that black bears are the ones to be the most worried about. I had always thought that grizzly / brown bears are the ones to be the most aggressive and most likely to kill me while I'm out backpacking, climbing, or hiking. Yellowstone and the Tetons are the only places I've carried bear spray. Maybe I should rethink that?
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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First, NEVER run from a bear. They tend to bluff charge, and if you stand there, especially a party of two, they often back down.
True. Running makes you appear to be prey to the bear.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Maybe I should rethink that?
Yes, you forgot Polar bears...
^^^ That's the front foot, the back ones are MUCH bigger!
And BTW, don't bother to run or fight a Polar bear,
you'll just die tired and frustrated.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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A scary story. Glad they were tough enough to survive the long way back.
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Play dead with grizzlies and fight like hell against black bears.
Depends on the time of day. If its night, fight.
Big difference between surprising a bear versus being considered a food source...
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado, Nepal & Okinawa
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Reilly, I've heard that bear spray works on polar bears also. There's a story of a Japanese arctic explorer who stood his ground with a charging polar bear which turned around only six feet from him when he finally let loose with bear spray.
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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Yes - Base104 is right on regarding bear behaviour. With very rare exceptions - a very, very few griz - mostly young and inexperienced - will consider humans prey. If you see a black following or circling you, he's sizing you up for lunch and aggression (yours) is in order.
I had a lot of experience with bears in Yosemite, Olympic and Denali. Had to shoot a few, not willingly. One memorable experience was first-aiding a seasonal ranger who was mauled in Denali. The road foreman brought him into our house from the Toklat area. He'd been bitten almost everywhere except his chest and belly where he was lying down. Partly scalped, skull showing. We had to clean all sorts of dirt and tundra plants out of his wounds, and when we rinsed out the rags in the sink the strainer clogged up with fatty tissue. No anesthesia, but he handled it well. It took 8 hours to get him to Fairbanks by special rail vehicle and then chopper. He recovered nicely, with a scalp like a road map and doubtless some scars on his soul.
Interesting that - as 104 noted - the bear never used full crushing bites. There were opposing fang marks on both sides of lower leg, but only punctures. Could have crushed it. Most was ugly, but superficial. More like punishment.
I searched for the bear for days but never located her.
The details of the attack are interesting but extensive. It was an exceptionally protective female with a couple of almost grown cubs, and she charged from over a hundred yards.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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And BTW, don't bother to run or fight a Polar bear,
you'll just die tired and frustrated.
Not so.
As far as I know, I'm still alive. But if I hadn't tried to escape, I'm pretty sure I would have died.
I spent years around black/brown bears in the forests of Northern Saskatchewan, and then in the mountains of Southwestern BC. Never had a problem. As Base104 said above, in areas where they are not habituated to humans, you can just shoo them away.
But meeting a mama Polar Bear coming down from her winter den, with her cub, wasn't the same thing at all.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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I'm continually surprised to hear the advice that black bears are the ones to be the most worried about. I had always thought that grizzly / brown bears are the ones to be the most aggressive and most likely to kill me while I'm out backpacking, climbing, or hiking. Yellowstone and the Tetons are the only places I've carried bear spray. Maybe I should rethink that?
Well, if there is anything that I am an authority on in this place, it is traveling in bear country. The range of black bears is huge. They are found in many places in the lower 48. The only griz country in the lower 48 is, generally, Yellowstone and its surroundings, as well as the Cascades, I believe. They used to have a huge range, all the way into the great plains, but they were quickly exterminated. They remain in Yellowstone and surrounding areas safe from people. You can't just go shoot them. So they fear people less and run into them more. A bad recipe, and there have been fatal incidents in Yellowstone.
So just on interactions, you are far more likely to run into a black bear than a griz in the lower 48.
Grizzlies are all over Alaska and western Canada, but the lower 48 is much more crowded, and human to bear interactions are more likely. Yes, most black bears aren't too big of a deal, but some can be killers.
Grizzlies aren't necessarily bloodthirstly monsters, but as I said, Yellowstone bears are habituated to humans. They don't fear people, because people don't shoot them there. I find Yellowstone a very creepy place at night, alone in the back country. Damn near every trail in the park has a bear warning sign at the trail head. Those bears are brave. They will come right into campgrounds and eat anything they can get their hands on. All you can do is keep food smell to a minimum. Don't take tins of sardines, for example.
As for the differences in attacks, grizzlies, in wild areas where they aren't habituated to humans, or associate them with food, tend to maul their victims more often than killing them. For whatever reason, it seems that bears regard humans as a threat in these areas, and after they stop the threat, they give up. It is pretty rare for a bear to actually kill, and likely less to feed on people, but it can happen. 2 people were killed and partially eaten in ANWR a while back, right in a spot that I had hiked through alone a few years before. It was the first bear attack since the Refuge was formed in the fifties. I know the guy who found the camp torn to shreds, and who called in the Troopers, who killed the bear from a helicopter, and found the elderly couple partially eaten. That is pretty damn rare, although it tends to haunt our dreams. Hyporthermia is a bigger problem than bears in the Arctic, but bears fit our nightmares.
In the arctic, there are no black bears. They are all grizzlies, other than the polar bears along the coast, and if you want to get freaky, we can talk about polar bears, who are curious and might walk 10 miles upwind just to check you out.
As for grizzlies, the wild ones tend to run like a deer when face to face with a human. If they don't, then it is time to get your pepper spray or shotgun ready because they aren't following the pattern. Even then, odds are it will end well.
Bears in Yellowstone don't follow the pattern. They've been raised on leftover cheese puffs and the constant smell of human food. They don't risk death by following these urges, so they associate humans with food. It is so bad that they have to eventually put bears down.
I far prefer the wild ones to the Yellowstone grizzlies.
Anyway, there is no catch-all solution. You play the odds. The odds are that if the bear does attack; if this is not a bluff charge, he will chew you up, but remarkably, most people survive, just like the guy in the story above who got a love nip in the leg. If that bear had wanted to kill him, it would have taken his head off in one second. If it had wanted to really hurt him, it would have crushed the bones in his leg. The appearance of his friend, the second person, even if armed only with a ski pole and a loud voice, totally changed the calculus. His appeared, and the bear left. If that guy didn't have a buddy, he would have probably really gotten chewed on.
Black bears rarely attack people, but when they do, they mean business. So fight like hell. If you know it is a grizzly, play dead. After the perceived threat is gone, the bear will often leave. That is playing the odds. There have been a lot of bear attacks, so there is a lot of evidence about their behavior.
The biggest thing you can do to be safe is to travel in groups. A bear almost never attacks a group of 3 or more. It just doesn't happen. Likely, the bear thought that the guy was alone. The appearance of his friend, even if all he could do was yell, is normally enough to spook a grizzly.
They don't walk around behaving like flesh eating zombies. They mainly live off of plants, and are lucky if they nab something more substantial.
The story above is great. Those guys climbed a ton of hard stuff. The bear attack is pretty typical for a grizzly. Maybe a little on the light side.
What they need to remember is that the second guy with the ski pole likely saved his buddy and ran off the bear. You don't need a weapon. Just yell and let the bear know that there are two of you. I've run off grizzly bears just by yelling at them more than once.
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phylp
Trad climber
Upland, CA
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What amazing stories!
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Did they send?
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado, Nepal & Okinawa
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I want to hear ghost's polar bear escape story!
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kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
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Just got the email below from the ACMG's Mountain Conditions Report:
From: Public Mountain Conditions Report
To: mcr@informalex.org
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2015 12:43:59 -0700
Subject: [MCR] Area Closure, Mt Wilson, Banff National Park, Winter 2015-2016
Attention Ice Climbers on the Icefields Parkway!
A section of Mt Wilson is closed following an ice climber being bitten by a denning grizzly bear. This area will be closed for the winter to protect climbers and the bear. Although this was a very rare and unlucky encounter, it serves as a reminder that bears are still active (often until late December) and other animals stay active throughout the winter. Make lots of noise and keep your eyes open!
Details here: http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/scond/cond_e.asp?oid=22162&opark=100092
Parks Canada Visitor Safety
Banff, Yoho, Kootenay National Parks | Parcs Natiounaux Banff, Yoho, Kootenay
http://www.parksmountainsafety.ca | www.parcsecuritemontagne.ca
edit - I appreciate Parks Canada for giving animals priority. Good management in so many ways.
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kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
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Beautiful photos, Jim! TFPU!
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Tony
Trad climber
Pt. Richmond, CA
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Speaking of Polar Bears, how about this approach? Nikita Ovsyanikov was a leader on our Svalbard trip. He had spent many seasons on Wrangel Island studying Polar Bears and other wildlife. Most of the time he was solo with only a stick and pepper spray (only used once) to contend with the many bears frequenting the coast. Pretty badass! Here is some video footage. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t find the film resulting from his video taken over the course of one season.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nobody ever wants to hear my Polar bear story because it has a happy ending.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado, Nepal & Okinawa
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My sister who lives in eastern B.C. near Nelson has had lots of bear problems and had a cougar in her barn recently also. She finally bought an electric fence to put around her chicken house that was guaranteed, she was told, to flip a grizzly.
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ecdh
climber
the east
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thats a gnarly incident.
its funny how many tales of bear 'incidents' happen in Japan.
i got nailed there by a black bear several years ago (maybe still the local hospital record for skin staples...woohoo - 163) so gained some insight into it.
over there black bears tally up about 150 attacks a year, whilst brown bears often zero. remoteness has little to do with it apparently (tho browns live in a more limited area), its attitude. blacks just go nuts as BASE states above.
probably a good thing as browns are almost double the size, grizzlies bigger i suppose, polars the next model again. any of them far outgun a human so if they dont kill its up to them.
beautiful and intelligent animals - from a safe distance.
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Blakey
Trad climber
Sierra Vista
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I recall the advice in (I think) some Canadian guides was similar to Base's: fight Black Bears, and play dead with Grizzlys (and here's where the advice differed) Unless the bear begins to strip flesh! (In which case you are dinner and might as well fight.)
Steve
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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I worked with a guy 40 years ago who told me a wild story involving a polar bear. Ron was working at the edge of the Beaufort Sea on a road testing project for the oil industry. They would build and test various road surfaces. A polar bear started hanging out near camp so they called in a govt biologist and small plane to dart and transport the bear.
The bear was darted and loaded into the plane. They had been flying for a while when the bear started to wake up! The biologist was unable to redart the bear. What do you do in a small plane with an unrestrained polar bear? They opened the door and pushed the bear out, sending it to its death.
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philo
climber
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That is solid info BASE104. TFPU.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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This may be the only topic on this place where I have more experience than anyone else posting here. I've spent many months alone in griz country, and have had a number of run-ins when alone. Normally they run away at top speed.
So. For those who go climbing in grizzly country, this is how it works:
These are GENERAL rules. Don't freak out just because you are going into griz country. If you have a gun, remember that you don't want to go shooting every grizzly who bugs you. They would run out of bears if everyone did that. I get a little pissed off every time I hear of an Anchorage dude shooting a bear. Often, both parties can walk away uninjured. It depends on your actions.
Where it gets spooky is when a bear charges you. Now I assume you are pointing a gun at it, but how you react is still the same. STAND YOUR GOUND, and often the bear will pull up short in what is called a bluff charge. Grizzlies are famous for bluff charging. So how do you know if it is a bluff or not? They run fast. Like a race horse for short distances. You don't really know until the bear stops.
The hard part of the question is: How close before I start shooting? I've let one charge me who stopped at 20 yards. Now, the Anchorage ass-wipes would probably shoot that bear 9 times out of 10. So how close is too close is very subjective.
First, in my time in Alaska, I never went anywhere without a 12 gauge loaded with slugs. The Native Indians and Eskimo's will think you are crazy if you go in there unarmed and alone. They always pack a gun. Basically, everyone has a firearm, including government biologists and researchers. I ran into a bunch of them studying ducks off the north coast once, and they all had been weapons trained. They were more worried about polar bears, as the ice was still fast to the shore, and they were out on a barrier island, where I was going to be picked up by my bush pilot after a 3 week solo float. Polar bears are entirely different than grizzlies. They might walk 10 miles upwind to check you out if they smell you, although they live off of ringed seals. A grizzly won't do this 99 times out of 100. If they smell you first, you will never see them...in remote wild areas.
Since bears pretty much never attack a group of 3 or larger, pepper spray is normally used on group outings, such as guided trips. Even then it is common for even a large group to have one firearm along..with everyone else packing pepper spray (which I've been told works), although it is constantly debated. Pepper spray is much better than nothing.
If it is a sow with cubs, it is better than average that it is a real attack. If you shoot her, though, she dies and so do her cubs, who will be quickly killed by any male grizzly that they come in contact with. If it is laying on a kill, it is also a bad situation, and the bear that came at me was, I later discovered, laying on a kill. I didn't shoot him, although the safety was off, a round was in the chamber, and I was beaded in on his chest. Fortunately he stopped at 20 yards, then circled me, chomping his teeth and acting pissed off, until he was downwind. At the point that he smelled me, he let out a loud snort and walked up the hill a ways and sat down. That was strange, because they normally run like a deer and are gone in a flash. So I walked over to where he had been laying, and found a half eaten caribou, covered with chunks of dirt and moss. They cover their kills up to keep the wolves from coming. Wolves will steal a kill from a bear. As it worked out, he pulled up short, I stood my ground, and both of us walked away uninjured. The best of all possible worlds.
The locals were impressed when I later told them the story. It is about as close as you can get to a thoroughly pissed off mature bear.
That begs the question again....How close is close enough to start shooting? I wish I had an answer. Probably 20 yards if he is super pissed off acting, and coming at you at top speed.
In the real wilderness, grizzlies don't run into many people, so they will often stop short if you hold your ground. I can promise you that if I had run, I would have gotten mauled. I stood tall and didn't move an inch. I am not particularly brave. I just did what I had been told to do, and it worked.
You would be surprised at what will happen if you just hold your ground. Since they are the apex predator, they don't expect that. They expect prey and every other animal to run. When you run, you are acting like prey. Don't be prey. Holding your ground makes them think twice..or something. All I know is that it works.
So in the above attack, first, the guy shouldn't have run. Fortunately, his friend kept his wits and came after it with a ski pole. Seeing two people was enough, and the bear left. Sorry about the leg, but it was a love tap compared to having your scalp ripped off. A bear is an incredibly strong animal, and they can kill you in one bite if so inclined.
I still don't know what time of year that it happened. They come out of their dens in the spring, when there is still snow, and that is the only thing I can think of when I saw the pic showing how high up they were when they had the encounter.
The exception to all of this is the Winter Bear. That is when a grizzly comes out of his den in mid-winter. He is starving and will attack anything. When that happens in Alaska, the bear is almost always shot at the first opportunity, especially if it is hanging around a village. Winter bears are a nightmare, from what I have heard.
I'm talking about instant decisions, though.
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kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
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^ Great information, BASE. The attack happened just a few days ago, on Nov. 29th, 2015.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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So how close is too close is very subjective.
Well, 20 yards is less than 2 seconds for a Griz at full tilt. You would
get one round, two at best, into him. Most of the time that won't cut it
unless it is very well placed. Yer choice. If he is still coming hard at
50 yards you're really rolling the dice as we're talking 5 seconds for the
rest of yer life.
My best friend up there had one charge him from 200 yds away on a big sand
bar. He was only 15 or 16 but born and raised. He took a knee, chambered
a round, sighted, and concentrated on his breathing. At 100 yds he started
his squeeze but the bear abruptly stopped. It must have sensed that he
was about to lose against this cool thinking kid with a 308.
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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As with anything there are general rules but almost always a few exceptions. Generally, grizzlies make defensive attacks, defending cubs or a kill, or just if suddenly surprised, and will usually just punish and then go away, but are not anthropophagous (Just love that word!) There are, however, a few predatory griz. A few years ago a young couple hiking in Kluane NP were followed by a young griz - just followed, not charged. They kept walking away but he persisted. They didn't know what to do, so they decided to play dead. Mistake. Bear walked up and killed the woman, the man fled. Bear ate on the woman. Thought by biologists to be a young inexperienced bear who hadn't discovered what was proper prey - but they are guessing too.
Up in Denali a few years ago a photographer went well away from the road to photograph an adult male griz. Took repeated shots at fairly close range while the bear seemed to ignore him. Finally it charged, killed him - and ate.
Re bluffing charges, I have noted that they tend to come in sometimes much like an aggressive dog which is not quite sure of its advantage - body slightly quartering as in ready to spin around and retreat if needed, head and ears up and very alert, and often angling to get downwind as he or she comes in. Again, just some observations and certainly not rules. Others may have had entirely different experiences.
And there's a lot of question about whether a gun is better than pepper spray. Being able to place a disabling shot on an incoming, bounding griz at a couple seconds notice is not something everyone can do reliably, where the spray needs much less accuracy. And if it is after all a bluffing charge, then if you do hit you've killed a magnificent animal needlessly. And they take a LOT of killing when excited. I investigated a poached griz carcass in Denali which had been shot in the chest area three times with a .270 and three times with a 378 Weatherby magnum, which is essentially an elephant gun. If you only wing one coming in and it was a bluff to start with, you might really piss him off.
Oh yeah - the sound of gunshots don't often scare them either. I've shot in front of a incoming griz and he paid no attention whatever.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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I met a guy up on the North Slope who was a big bow hunter. There had been a bunch of caribou killing close to the haul road, and he went up there with his bow to get one feeding on the gut piles. He took along a partner with a .44mag pistol for safety.
He killed it with one shot. The bears are much smaller that far north, and an adult may weigh only 250 lbs. This bear was in that range.
He skinned it on the spot and described its muscles, which were then plainly visible. He said it looked like a WWF wrestler on steroids. An extremely strong animal.
I've come across bears where I see them before they see me. The treeless northern arctic is like that. I NEVER try to sneak around the bear. I don't want to worry that it is following me, although the odds are small. Still, when they are really hungry, bets are off.
I just yelled at it, got its attention, and it stormed off through some scrub willow until out of sight. It gave me the right of way.
I did travel another 5 or 6 miles that evening and found a flat spot to camp a few hundred feet up the side of the valley, but I never saw it again. That year I had a number of bear encounters, even on the same day. After I crossed the pass to the North Slope, I didn't see another bear for the rest of the trip. I saw plenty of sign, but didn't spot a bear.
That is hungry country up there, and the bears have a short feeding season vs. a long hibernation. I would always examine the scat. Normally it was full of berries or grasses. I think that I ran into one old scat near a kill that had a bone in it as big as your fist.
Really, if you let the bears scare you from even visiting, you will miss some amazingly beautiful country. You are far more likely to die in a car wreck than at the hands of a grizzly. Even up there.
It is wild how much bigger the southern bears are compared to the arctic ones. That elderly couple up on the Hula Hula river were attacked in their tent, killed, and partially eaten by time a guide I know happened upon their camp, which had been ripped to shreds. They shot the bear, and it was about a 250 lb. male that was 12 years old.
That is the rarity. A totally predatory attack. They do happen, particularly among the history of Yellowstone and Glacier NP's.
I was always tired, and after dinner conked out cold. Worrying about bears is a waste of time in those areas. Yellowstone or Glacier on the other hand, where habituated bears are in places frequented by humans, may very easily see humans as prey. That is why hiking in Yellowstone freaks me out far more than sleeping in griz country, even on salmon streams, where they are congregated.
Polar bears. Never saw them, but I've seen some huge tracks along the coast, and sleeping there is a little freaky. I've heard conflicting info on how to deal with them. Supposedly there was an Asian researcher who studied them for most of his life. He carried a little stick, and if they got out of hand, he would whack them on the nose with it. He encountered a lifetime of polar bear experiences and got away with the little stick every time. Of course he knew their behavior inside and out. They mainly feed off of ringed seals, and tossing your camp close to the beach, with seals sunning a hundred yards out from the beach, well, it did cause me to lose a little sleep.
As to the electric fences. I've heard that they work. You can power them with small solar outfits.
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steve s
Trad climber
eldo
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Great story and thread! Also some good info about dealing with bears which most climbers should at least be prepared for.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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I've had lots of bear encounters in Idaho, Wyoming, BC, and Yosemite. However most of my personal experience stories have been related elsewhere on ST and don't really stand up to the ones on this thread in any case.
However some stories from my 'helicopter cousin' in Alaska may be worth passing along. He flew many combat missions in Vietnam in Huey Cobras and then returned to the states as a commercial pilot. For a while we shared a business in Oregon with a Kaman Huskey UH-43B…until it flung a blade in the air one day...so I got to hear a bunch of stories. I can't vouch for any of them, but they are fun to tell:
One time he and a girlfriend were making out in a Cessna 180 parked in the snow next to a runway. A mama grizzly with a couple of cubs came walking across the runway and by chance towards their plane with the windows mostly fogged up. The girl freaked out and made some noise, but my cousin managed to get her to quiet down. The mama veered towards the plane and picked up the smell and started acting disturbed, while the cubs just kept going. As the cubs wandered off, the mama got distracted and snorted and walked off after them.
So my cousin had a contract to fly all over parts of Alaska and land next to streams to collect samples of wet sand and code them to map positions…looking for gold bearing sands. Since these were salmon streams, there were often bears getting interested in the noisy helicopter. So he would fly above the bears and attract them off a mile or so from where he wanted to land, then zip back and collect a sample before the bears could catch him on the ground. The vibrations of the helicopter worked nicely to shake out the gold flakes to the bottom of the plastic bags. Needless to say, he kept some of the more interesting samples for himself.
He told another interesting story about an old grandmother who used to walk the beach by herself. One day she walked around a big boulder to find a large grizzly walking around towards her from the other side a few feet away. The startled bear reared up on it's hind legs and gave a great roar. So she reciprocated, waving her arms and giving her best roar. The bear politely agreed and they each turned around and walked back retracing their steps.
He also told a story of a group of marines who decided to go off grizzly hunting in a jeep with a mounted M-60 machine gun along with their M-16s. When they didn't return, their friends went looking for them the next day. They found the Jeep tipped over, the Marines dead with all their ammo expended, a blood trail starting about 100 yards out leading to the Jeep, and the dead grizzly some distance off from the Jeep.
Ok, so to repeat, I can't vouch for any of these stories…or a zillion other war stories he told me…but I am guessing they were not invented out of thin air...
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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Great stories, Tom! The most amazing thing, though, was the couple making out in a Cessna 180!
Brian - your thread got hijacked by bear stories. Sorry! That must have been a hellish experience.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Shooting a bear at 200 yards is just foolish. If people shot every bear that acted aggressive, at that distance, they would run out of bears up there. I waited until the last possible second, knowing I would put one good slug into its chest. Hopefully that will slow him down, and you can pump 4 more into him. Then wait 30 minutes and go over to put another round into him. An injured griz is bound to be pissed off.
In village Alaska, bears are a regular topic. I remember floating the Unalakleet River during salmon spawning season, and the river banks were covered with HUGE tracks. They get really big on salmon streams.
After we were dropped off, the eskimo who had taken us 75 miles upstream in his boat equipped with an outboard jet for shallow water, told us,
"Don't worry about the bears. They never bother anybody". On that trip, I saw an enourmous bear swim the stream below us in the late twilight. He looked like a dinosaur, he was so big. Not one bear bothered us, and the ones who saw us ran away at top speed. They get hunted in that area.
All of these bear rules go out the window in the national parks. In those places, such as Yellowstone and Glacier, along with the Canadian parks, the bears have near constant interaction with people. They aren't scared of them, because nobody hunts them. Most of the real horror story predatory attacks seem to happen in those areas.
I've spent a lot of time in Yellowstone. Even went on a cross country ski trip in winter once. It is a terribly spooky place, because the bears are accustomed to people and are not scared of them in the least. I really fear the dark in those places, and at this age, not much scares me. Alaska or backcountry Canada is different, and most encounters are similar to the ones I described.
I know that Obama signed a law permitting the carry of loaded firearms in National Parks a while back. Still, if you kill a bear, they treat almost treat it like killing a person. You can get charged with fines and all that. I've met a lot of guides, and they say that pepper spray works, but the bear has to be less than ten feet away for it to work.
Anyone up on polar bears? I've never seen one, but have seen many fresh tracks. They are considered marine mammals, and rarely stray very far inland.
The oil companies on the north slope know the denning sites, and if a female dens up near a drilling pad, they do all that they can to run it off. They have to halt all operations if a bear is denning nearby. They call it "hazing," and there is a fair amount of info about it on the web if you look. They strafe them with helicopters to run them off when they are denning up. It all really stinks (and I am IN the oil business).
I used to write about the Arctic Refuge. Nobody calls it ANWR except the pro-drilling folks. A journal article, some op-eds, even being on AM talk shows, where I had to answer stupid questions. The average American is pretty stupid, but occasionally I was faced with a good question.
I was around when seals were sunning themselves 100 yards away on the ice, saw HUGE footprints regularly, but never saw one.
I think that our very own Reilly here was in Kaktovik, an eskimo village on the North Slope, after they had killed a bowhead whale. Somehow the bears know, and they swim long distances to pick at the carcass, which is drug over in a shallow water bone pile. Tons of bears show up for this, including grizzlies from inland.
I don't know how the polar bears know to come, because they don't get a whale every year, and the wind is always blowing the wrong direction for them to smell it.
Lots of polar bear photos are taken at the Kaktovik bone pile.
They have them wander through the village (pop 170) in the winter. Everyone has CB radio's in their houses, so they know it and protect the kids on their way to school.
Polar bears don't kill very many humans. Their range only overlaps right at the coast. The tracks are easy to recognize. Here is a big one:
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Anyone up on polar bears? I've never seen one, but have seen many fresh tracks.
I've encountered a polar bear right up close and personal. Very, very scary.
I'm on deadline for the end of the afternoon, but will try to post something tonight.
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Chewybacca
Trad climber
Kelly Morgan, Whitefish MT
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Glad everyone (including the bear) survived the op's encounter. I'd be interested in more detail about how the biting victim escaped the bear's grasp. I imagine the bear felt it had neutralized a threat and let him go.
An acquaintance was bitten on the leg in Sept. He had a surprise encounter with a sow and cubs. As she was chewing on his leg he managed to get his bear spray out and shot her point blank in the face. She and the cubs rapidly left the scene. Being a resourceful old school climber he grabbed some duct tape from his pack, patched his wounds, limped to the trail head and drove himself to the hospital. The climber and bear are both doing well.
Here is a link to a brief article on the encounter- http://www.krtv.com/story/30156623/hiker-survives-attack-by-grizzly-bear-in-glacier-national-park
Here is a bluff charge a grumpy sow made at me. I slowed it down to 25% of normal speed. The telephoto lens is a little deceptive, she never got closer than 100 ft. to me.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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skcreidc
Social climber
SD, CA
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There is some pretty good bear info coming out of this thread, particularly from base104 and the people from BC and Montana. I've been a student of wildlife behavior since I was a kid, and it seems like the best thing you can do is keep updating your learning to go into these areas.
And there's a lot of question about whether a gun is better than pepper spray.
OK, this has had an analysis done by qualified people, one being Stephen Herrero of University of Calgary. Their conclusion was that your chance of coming out alive and unhurt was significantly greater using bear spray. Check out the study your self to see how it was handled because the period of data collected is different (bear spray has only been available since the 80's, whereas firearms...)
http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/bear_cougar/bear/files/JWM_BearSprayAlaska.pdf
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Whatever we do, we can NEVER be absolutely assured of our saftey in Grizzly Country.....and that is good.
Good, primarily because there still is, and hopefully always will be, Grizzly Country. Enter at your own risk with the chilling but exciting realization that humans are not always the apex predator.
I would hate to be in a world devoid of the wild and the unpredictability that it brings.
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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There's an absolutely excellent video called "Staying Safe in Bear Country" which you can locate online. Best thing I've seen. It was done by Phil Timpany, a cinematographer friend who used to live here in Atlin and practically lived with bears for years. It demonstrates very graphically how bears react in contact with humans, and how humans should react. Some of the bluffing charges are positively hair-raising and make you realize the problems you'd have taking one down with a gun if he was serious. Also shows an advancing black bear in definitely predatory behaviour reacting to pepper spray. It confirms and expands on the behaviour that Base104 has mentioned.
I have to include a funny polar bear story. Twenty-odd years ago I used to be the Asst. Regional Director for Renewable Resources of the Baffin Island district, which is now Nunavut. (Read Chief Game Warden.) One of the jobs of the community Officers was to chase polar bears out of the settlements. We hired a new guy, just out of University in Ontario to fill the job in Resolute. Explained to him that he would be using a 12 ga. with a plastic bullet called a Ferret slug to sting the bears and chase 'em out. The magazine behind the Ferret was filled with Brenneke Rottweil 3" magnum slugs, which are devastating at both ends of the gun. We also told him not to deter a bear unless he had a good local hunter with a big bore rifle backing him up.
So eventually the time came, he called out a hunter who had agree to back him up, and they approached the bear in town. He checked to be sure the hunter was ready, and stung the bear at about 30 yards. It just pissed him off and it came for him. He had a brief peripheral vision of his backup vanishing, but managed to drop the bear almost at his feet. Looked around and found the backup had split. A great learning experience.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Bears have the biggest problem staying safe in "Bear Country."
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Bears don't love the inhospitable places where they now live, they were forced there by the spread of civilization. There was a time when the the densest Grizzly populations were where Santa Barbara now is. Hey, they liked that famous good weather just like we do and the streams had not been polluted by man and had bountiful salmon runs.
Let them have free reign in that harsh environment we forced them into. Places where you won't find a Google Campus, almond farm or a manicured golf course.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
Shetville , North of Los Angeles
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This Norwegian friend , a hunting guide up in Fairbanks , shared a story about migrating polar bears near an indian village that trashed some hunters ATV's that were left unattended...
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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Totally agree with you, Donini. Magnificent creatures, and far more complex and ordinarily less aggressive than usually recognized. Unfortunately, there is sometimes a survival scenario. The video I mentioned has some great hints on coexistence.
Rottingjohn - polar bears also have a remarkable appetite for unattended snowmobile seats and inflatable boats. Some good stories there, too.
We had a bear nose print high on our picture window for as long as I could preserve it there. I encouraged his departure but treasured his memento.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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I have to include a funny polar bear story. Twenty-odd years ago I used to be the Asst. Regional Director for Renewable Resources of the Baffin Island district,
My story precedes Wayne’s by a decade or so, and is definitely not as funny. Thirty-odd years ago I spent a fair amount of time on Baffin Island, at first just as a climber/skier, but the second trip partly as a hired gun for the Canadian equivalent of the Park Service, employed to “find out if certain routes were suitable for ski traverses.”
Yeah, eat your hearts out. It was the ultimate ski-mountaineering wet dream made real. Except for the part that turned into the ultimate ski-mountaineering nightmare made real.
Paring it down for this Bear Thread, part of the deal involved the first traverse of the Penny Ice Cap (where the last Ice Age started). To get us to the starting point, at the head of the Coronation Glacier, a couple of the Auyuituq Park staff put our gear on komituks and towed us behind their snowmobiles from Pangnirtung, up the fjord, up Weasel Valley to Summit Lake (where we dropped a month’s supplies), then down Owl Valley, back onto the ocean, around the headland, and up Coronation Fjord.
The idea was that they’d drop us at the fjordhead, where it looked like there was a relatively low-angle moraine we could use to access the glacier. And once up on the glacier, well, theoretically at least, we’d be able to get to the icecap, and from the ice cap eventually back south to our cache at Summit Lake.
Things went relatively smoothly until we started up Coronation Fjord. It was early May, and the snow/ice situation was weird. Melt-out up there starts from the ice/snow boundary and works its way upward. Which is fine, because it doesn't snow all that much. But Coronation is what they call a "wind fjord," and a lot of snow gets blown onto it. At this early stage of the melt, we encountered about a meter of powder on top of about 20 cm of slush on top of the ice. The snow machines couldn’t deal with it. Their tails would plow down, sending a rooster-tail of freezing salt slush into our faces (we were riding the komituks), then up, then dig in again, then up, ad infinitum.
Which would have been fine anywhere else. We’d just have said: “park these beasts, and we’ll get off and ski from here.” But while Ryan and I were as brave as any two of you, we weren’t stupid. Who wants to get off and ski up a glacier that is so thick with polar bear tracks that there was hardly an undisturbed patch of snow? Our drivers were armed, and we were on noisy machines, so better to continue right to the fjord head before dismounting.
Alas, it was not to be. The machines simply couldn’t make way as the powder/slush mix got deeper, and there was no choice but to start the non-motorized part of the expedition from about two-thirds of the way up the fjord. But no problem, right? We’ll just borrow our drivers’ rifles, and if there are still any bears coming down from their winter sleep (which the drivers said there certainly wouldn’t be), we’ll be ready to deal with them.
That met with a polite “No f*#king way we’re letting these rifles out of our hands.” Accompanied by “But no worries. These tracks are old. No way any more bears are coming down at this time of year.”
So we packed our loads, and skied off toward the ice-cliff that marked the point where the glacier ended and the ocean began. Too far to go without a camp, and we set up the tent in the midst of a zillion bear tracks, chanting over and over “The tracks are old. The bears are long gone” until eventually we fell asleep.
Waking up alive seemed to offer some proof that yes, the bears were indeed long gone, and we packed up and skied in much better spirits toward the point where the moraine came down the side of the ice cliff. It was a fine morning, and it looked like our guess that the moraine would be a straightforward avenue up onto the glacier was going to be proved right.
We skied right up to the ice cliff where the glacier fell into the ocean. Hundreds of feet high, and obviously impassible, but the moraine at its side looked relatively low angle.
But as we headed toward the moraine, we saw a pair of tracks leading down from somewhere up above, and ending just out of our sight at about the point we were headed for. “Hmmmm. Well, yeah, the bears are long gone, so these ones probably just wandered a little further seaward along the moraine, in a hollow out of our sight.”
Right. Onward. And then, when we were about 25 meters from the moraine, the cutest little polar bear cub imaginable stuck its head up and looked at us.
Kind of like lions. Or grizzlies. Or whatever deathdealers – if there’s a cub, then mama is somewhere nearby.
Up the moraine was out – that was straight into the jaws of death. Back down the fjord was out – that was straight into midst of about five million bears who clearly were not “long gone.” All that was left was to start skiing across the fjord, hoping that there would be a way up on the other side, and that mama wouldn’t show up until we were far enough away to be safe. A little over two km, on powder over slush, with 30 kg on our backs, and a top speed that wouldn’t scare a snail.
Still, since there wasn’t any choice, we turned and started slogging parallel to the ice cliff.
We made maybe 100 meters before mama popped up beside the cub, scoped us out, and started down the moraine.
Think about it. It had been months since she’d eaten, and not only was she ravenously hungry, but she probably saw us as a threat to her baby. If either of us had been religious, we’d probably just have knelt down right there and tried to become one with god, hoping that if we did that, being torn apart and eaten might not hurt too much. But since faith was in short supply, the only option was to keep on trucking and…
…and what? Postpone death by a minute or two?
I’d like to say that there is some useful material in this story that might help someone else in a polar bear confrontation, but I can’t. We didn’t decide to run, or to stand our ground, or to shout and wave our ski poles. We did the only thing we could, which was to slowly trudge through the slop toward the far shore as the bear quickly gained on us.
Fragile humans, about to enter the food chain from the very top.
But I’m here, writing this, and Ryan made it out with me. Why? Because, with mama bear only about twenty meters behind us, we passed a small berg, probably calved off the previous summer, and now frozen in the sea ice right at the base of the glacier. When we rounded it, we saw an opening in the glacier, guarded by a bunch of lumpy ice cubes – a crevasse, approached end-on rather than from above.
So we scrambled over the cubes, and into the crevasse, and then along its floor. Not thinking, just reacting. Same as you, or anyone would do. If you are being chased by a tiger, and see a door, you don’t ask what horror might lurk behind the door, do you?
Still on skis, we shuffled along a twisting path between walls of ice that grew higher and higher. Would the bear follow us? Had she lost interest when we turned out of sight behind the berg? We had no idea. All we knew was that there was no turning back, so we kept ski-trudging along the flat bottom of the crevasse.
Which may have some of you calling BS. Why kind of sh#t is this guy talking? Crevasses don’t have flat bottoms. How can he say they skied along a nice snow sidewalk two to three meters wide at the bottom of a crevasse?
Well, if we’d had functioning brains, we’d probably have asked the same question. But, believe me, being stalked by the greatest predator on earth turns off the analytical part of your mind.
At least for a while. Until, about ten or fifteen minutes past certain death, your ski pole punches a hole in the snow in front of you and you stare down through that hole into the great blue forever, and realize that you are on a sunken snow bridge, which is no doubt about to collapse under you and send you plummeting to your death.
F*#k.
Can’t go back. That way is guarded by a zillion hungry polar bears. Can’t stay here, cuz after the food is gone we'll die. So… onward.
“Should we rope up?”
“F*#ked if I know.”
We roped up, and trudged onward. Ice tools and crampons were in the cache at Summit Lake, so we couldn’t climb up out of the crevasse, but only go forward, and hope… Twice our hope seemed to shine, and we ascended low-angle ramps to the surface, but both times we found ourselves on a small isolated point, and had to head back down. But the third ramp led to the main glacier, and we…
It would be nice to say we bent down, kissed the snow and lived happily ever after, but the glacier was covered with bear tracks, and instead of worrying about dying when the snow beneath us collapsed, we were back to worrying about being eaten.
Fortunately, by this time we were both so physically and emotionally wasted that we didn’t care. We just set up the tent, hit the first aid kit for a couple of valiums, and passed out.
About ten hours later we woke up to a total whiteout. F*#king wonderful. We won’t even see the bear that kills us.
But what can you do? What we did was ski gently uphill for another two days of fear. Or, rather, about a day-and-a-half of fear, because at that point we realized we hadn’t seen any tracks for a couple of hours, and that we would probably live.
So, there's a polar bear story, from someone who, even thirty-five years later, has no idea why he survived.
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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Ghost: hollllleeee fucK.
you did not disappoint and you certainly did not overhype...
one of the most insanely incredible real life stories i've ever heard...
thanks for taking the time to write it up!
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado, Nepal & Okinawa
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Yes, thank you for an utterly gripping story!
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, ghost... oh my.......... :O
thanks for sharing your story...
thanks to the allmighty over us all, you are here...
and made it through, :O
also, thanks for the shares, on the whole thread, and the
info from kunlun_shan... (hope i spelled that right)...
VERY awful stuff, that so many folks have seen,
as well... whewww...
and from jan, as the japan, area...
and for many other stuff, here...
thanks all!
*the scientist guy, link, too...
the video...
hey there to tami, too...
i will go read the link that brian started this with...
thank brian...
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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lord have mercy
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Gimp
Trad climber
Missoula, MT & "Pourland", OR
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Have seen many Grizzlies in Alaska and Montana but the closest I have ever been to a cub was a couple of years ago in Alaska when my son and were hiking along a trail that paralleled one side of an oxbow lake and we looked on the other side and saw the cub grazing on the spring grass. Mom was rustling around in the bush on the slope above the lake.
Cute and magnificent "little creature"
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skcreidc
Social climber
SD, CA
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Canada is still there, so he must have.
A great story to add to a thread with a few of them, Ghost. Thanks for putting that up.
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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GREAT story, Ghost! Incredible adventure - and better you than me. I could picture the whole thing. Eyes like targets. Glad you made it.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Incredible adventure - and better you than me.
I'm sure you can believe me when I say that Ryan and I were both wishing it was someone else and not us.
As to why we survived, I'm not sure. The one thing that is fact, and not conjecture, is that the bear didn't charge down the moraine after us. She walked. A lot faster than we could ski in the slop with our heavy loads, but still walking, not running.
If she'd been intent on killing us from the beginning, it would have been all over in less than a minute, but, for whatever reason, she didn't just run us down and kill us.
If we hadn't found the opening into the icefall (hidden behind the small berg), she'd have caught up to us within another minute or less. And then? Who knows?
Was she just curious? Maybe unsure what these creatures were?
No idea. All I know for sure is that once we turned the corner on the berg and scrambled into the slot, we never saw her again. That, and that she was probably the last bear to come down that year.
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kaholatingtong
Trad climber
the city for a change
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Wow, what a tale! Gets my heart rate up just reading it, I can only imagine what it was like to experience. Thanks for sharing this with us all.
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Steven Amter
climber
Washington, DC
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Ghost:
Awesome story. Hell, it could be turned into a short film. The "old tracks" part is hilarious.
In the more than two months I spent in Baffin, I never saw a bear.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Cool, S Amter,
glad ya made this one 'pop up', great bump!
&
Ghost !! wee ooe shared a gut check! (not sure how I'da' fair'd?)
Also I am not the one to tell the story of the guys from the Gunks,
who were held at bay, starving after days of climbin'
stuck by an aggressive bear between them and their provisions,
dropped on the glacier,
I don't remember much more,
other than it was a hard-core badadze named Michael Dimitri,(?)
someone must know the saga?
It always seems that Steve Grossman knows all
& if he doesn't know then
Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Jun 19, 2015 - 11:12pm PT
Scott's story of the FFA was saved, and it's in this thread:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2513603/Southern-Belle-Thread-Anyone-have-the-text
I also saved Hank's story (attempted 2nd free ascent), and it's in my March 20, 2009 post to this thread:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=568523&tn=40
Both of them are also saved on my "Long Hard and Free" page:
http://www.stanford.edu/%7Eclint/yos/longhf.htm#half
(A link to the story of the 3rd free ascent by Will Stanhope and Alex Honnold is also there).
. . .
will be able to find it,
by magic to me it seems,
it is a archive thing for them
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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In the more than two months I spent in Baffin, I never saw a bear.
Reading your various posts, I think you were there later in the year than I was -- by which time the bears are all out on the floe edge.
Both my trips were for late April and the month of May. Ice still in, but -- theoretically at least -- the female bears and their cubs are already down from the winter dens on the glaciers. Theory doesn't always translate to reality, though, and we met one straggler.
Also, I think you were in the Mt. Thor area, and I doubt there have been any bears in the Pang fjord or Weasel Valley area for at least fifty years. Far too many people with guns there. Which makes it a lot easier to sleep at night.
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