Two British ice climbers are lucky to be alive after they were attacked by a grizzly bear while climbing a frozen waterfall along Highway 93.
Greg Boswell and Nick Bullock were climbing a route on Mount Wilson, a few kilometres north of the Saskatchewan River Crossing on Highway 93, when they stumbled upon a grizzly bear den, Nov. 29.
“This is a pretty unusual event,” said Jon Stuart-Smith, acting human wildlife specialist for Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay National Parks.
“Bears in those situations are often quite sensitive to disturbances and can be very defensive and there have been instances when people have been killed when they have stumbled across a den. These guys were very lucky.”
In response to the bear attack, Parks Canada closed the area. The closure will likely remain in place until May to give the bear its space and avoid any further confrontations.
In a blog post recounting the event, Bullock said the pair had called it a day around 7 p.m. and were heading back down the pitch when the bear suddenly attacked.
“Bear, aaaaaaargh,” shouted Boswell, as he sprinted with the bear in hot pursuit.
Startled by what had just happened, Bullock took off in the opposite direction running uphill as fast as humanly possible in the deep snow.
Seconds later the bear caught up to Boswell, who had fallen, and pounced on him biting through his boot as he kicked and screamed.
“It lunged once more and crunched into his shin, placing a paw on his other leg before lifting him off the ground,” continued Bullock.
“Nick, Nick, help, its got me…” screamed Boswell, as he attempted to pry open the bear’s mouth.
Hearing his friend’s pleas, Bullock turned around.
“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.”
Out of the bear’s grasp the two men took off screaming into the nearby woods.
Bleeding and on edge, the men managed to find the crampons and axes they had left behind earlier in the day and quickly began packing their bags, all the while waiting for another ambush.
“If it comes, no running, we stand together and hit the bastard,” said one of the men.
“Yeah, we’re in this together, hit the bastard, hit it as hard as f------g possible, in the head, in the eye, hit the f----r.”
Armed with their axes and headlamps the two began to follow what they thought was their trail, but after an hour it was clear they were lost and nowhere near their ropes.
“An hour later, crawling, bushwhacking, following our steps, the bears steps, any steps, we spotted where we had gone wrong and within minutes we found the ropes and the place to abseil the rock band,” wrote Bullock.
Boswell repelled first, while Bullock anxiously waited above the ridge, shining his headlamp into the dark abyss and clutching both axes.
Three repels later, the duo was back at the bottom of Mount Wilson and followed their tracks until they reached their car.
According to Stuart-Smith, the men showed up at the emergency room in Banff around 2 a.m. on Nov. 30, nearly six hours after they first encountered the grizzly.
Following the attack, Boswell shared the news on his Facebook page.
“I’m ok, just a little shook up and sore,” he wrote. “I got attacked by a Grizzly bear last night and lived to tell the tail (sic), and to make the 3 hour descent and 2 hour drive to the hospital. All stitched up now and on the mend.”
“It’s a good reminder for everybody that there still can be bears out and active at this time of year,” said Stuart-Smith.
“We realize we’ve closed a little bit of an area where people like to recreationally ice climb, but there are lots of other places in the surrounding area and throughout the parks, including Jasper where people can still do some ice climbing.”
Paul Clarke
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