Grizzly Kills Moose Hunter in Wrangell-St. Elias NP in Alaska

LongCut

FNG
Joined
Sep 9, 2020
Messages
56
I read on another forum, from a guy claiming to be related to the hunter that survived, that two of them were processing a moose they had harvested. One guy went back to camp, and when he returned to the kill site, the bear charged him. The guy unloaded on the bear with a pistol and it ran off. He then found his buddy, already dead....
 

Broomd

WKR
Joined
Sep 29, 2014
Messages
4,210
Location
North Idaho
Damn, RIP. That is wild country.

I was in the Wrangel St. Elias Preserve in '99 heading to the sheep mountains on my Honda wheeler. I was riding up a semi-dry, boulder-strewn creek bed when I came around a bend and right upon a sow griz with cubs.
She saw me and instantly came after me like a bat outta hell; I spun the bike around the best I could to outrun her. God, it was close. I was hanging on, the bike bouncing and bucking over huge boulders, her jaws snapping. I was in disbelief she would chase me on that machine, but she didn't give a sh!t.
I had a milk crate full of gear strapped to the front rack, my crap was flying everywhere, some of my stuff I never retrieved. She finally gave up.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 31, 2019
Messages
1,119
Location
NW Florida
What a shame.

I'm not going to lie... it scares the tar out of me. We were booked to hunt next Sept, but had to cancel for a few reasons. The bear thing really was in the back of my mind... admittedly more so than it should have been, but still there in large form regardless.

Still haven't given up putting a hunt together, but the bear prospect (especially if successful) does bother me.
 

alaska_bou

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Aug 9, 2020
Messages
228
We were hunting just west of where this happened and learned of it when our pilot came to pickup our first moose. As I understand they still havent found the bear, dead or alive.
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2018
Messages
615
The men should have never separated. Literally a fatal mistake. The more noise and chaos a group makes (with meat down) in that country, the safer the scenario.
That's pretty much it in a nutshell....failure to observe the buddy system has probably resulted in more deaths in the Alaskan outdoors than any other cause....very sad.
 

Johnboy

WKR
Joined
Dec 12, 2014
Messages
538
In 2016 up in the Brooks, my buddy and I killed a dandy bull moose right before dark. A grizzly appeared within 30 yards downwind of the bear almost immediately after the bull dropped. We thought for sure the bear would try to claim our kill, and we made an awful racket as we approached, immediately building a raging fire which we kept burning all night (took us forever to break the bull down). Thankfully the bear never gave us trouble. In hindsight, I'm not sure how wise we were to take the aggressive approach. It worked out fine, but alternate scenarios occasionally run through my mind. Lots of variables out of our control.

What a tragedy for this young man. Get your hearts right, fellas. You just never know when the clock will run out.
 

Johnboy

WKR
Joined
Dec 12, 2014
Messages
538
Here's a screenshot of the bear from video I took of the event. I find bears fascinating, but this was not a welcomed sight.

Bear1.jpg
 
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