It was a couple of miles north of Brooks Lake in the Absaroka range. Lots of bears up there. It's about 20 miles from where I have been hunting the last 2 weekends. I heard, unconfirmed, that he didn't take any bear spray as to "not hurt the bears". Very experienced and skilled guy in the mountains made a bad decision (not taking spray) and then was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The bear seems to be a pretty good hunter, had 2 healthy deer buried with the man's remains.
There are some griz in the Winds, but not many. They may eventually work their way south but it's believed that there's not enough food source to support a high population like they have in the Absaroka mtns.
I've hunted in the exact spot he was killed, we always have bear encounters in that drainage. It's really not that far from where I live. He made 2 huge backcountry mistakes, went in alone and had no bear spray or side arm. He was suspected of being killed on his first night in. Talked to SAR guy today that helped locate his remains about the incident.
The Winds have plenty of Grizzly, I have trail cam pics of them from Lander to Dubois. Lander area has several confirmed resident grizzlies and that's the very edge of the Winds.
I hunt in the lander end of the winds. I will confirm the grizzlies there. This year there was a sighting pretty darn close to the highway. I have seen pictures even further south than that.