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

[AKBorn]

Prayers up for the family and friends. Not many details yet.

Grizzly bear kills hunter in national park in Alaska

More details, such as what occurred and the status of the bear, were not immediately clear. An investigation is pending.

news.yahoo.com

 

[VernAK]

Some very sketchy stories coming out of the bush but I'm not able to confirm the veracity at this time.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Mansfield hunter, 22, killed by grizzly bear during Alaskan moose hunt

SOUTHEAST ALASKA — A 22-year-old Mansfield man on a moose hunt was mauled to death by a grizzly bear Sunday, according to published reports. Austin Pfeiffer, who would have been 23 on Tuesday, was an avid outdoorsman who was reportedly field-dressing a moose he had just taken when the bear...

www.richlandsource.com

 

[LongCut]

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....

 

[KChunter71]

Gone at 22. RIP Austin

 

[FLAK]

Thats just horrible!!! Dammagrizzly!!!

 

[Broomd]

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.

 

[Panhandler80]

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.

 

[Sourdough]

This is the most detailed write-up that I have found........and it leaves much out.

Hunter killed by bear in Wrangell-St. Elias died in ‘surprise attack’ while field-dressing moose, officials say

The National Park Service said a 22-year-old Ohio man was salvaging moose meat when he was killed in the national park’s first recorded fatal bear mauling.

www.adn.com

 

[AK Troutbum]

There is so much about this that is just absolutely horrible. I can't even imagine what that kid was going through that night waiting for his flight out the next day.

 

[Sourdough]

There is so much about this that could be a teaching/learning opportunity, to/for the public at large. It is interesting to me that the lead information and priority information mentioned (more then once) is how safe the that Park and Preserve is.

 

[Panhandler80]

There is so much about this that is just absolutely horrible. I can't even imagine what that kid was going through that night waiting for his flight out the next day.

Had the same thought. You talk about a bad night. Holy sheep $hit.

 

[Broomd]

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.

 

[alaska_bou]

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.

 

[Akwoodchuck]

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]

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]

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.

 

[NorthCountryAB]

RIP what a tragedy. A humble reminder of how wild it can be in the north.