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Bear attacks

Calgary man fights grizzly, rescues badly injured pal

Calgary - The terrifying image of a grizzly bounding toward him will forever be burned into the mind of a Calgary man who not only survived the encounter, but who also saved the life of his friend.
Michael Waldhuber, 29, had been separated from his hiking partner on the Bryant Creek Trail by about 15 metres, last Wednesday, when he heard his friend yell, "Whoa, bear!" Seconds later, a blood-curdling scream pierced the silence in the dense Banff National Park forest. Waldhuber ran towards his pal, but stopped cold when he noticed rustling in the bush.

"I thought, 'Oh my God, it's coming,'" Waldhuber said in an interview about their encounter with the grizzly about 25 kilometres south of the Banff townsite. The massive grizzly sow, with her cub nearby, lunged from the bush and charged toward Waldhuber. "I had my bear spray in my hand and I sprayed her in the face but she turned, circled me and tried to charge from another angle," he said. "I sprayed her again and she circled me a third time." As he aimed his bear spray at her a final time, the sow paused and fled.

But the real horror was yet to begin for Waldhuber. As he edged closer to his buddy who was screaming in pain, yelling, "I'm dying," over and over again, Waldhuber was terrified of what he would find. The man's face was covered in blood, and there was a massive gash in his head, revealing part of his scalp, and his tricep muscle had been ripped completely out of his arm, said Waldhuber. "I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt so I took it off and wrapped it around his arm," he said. "I pulled out the first-aid kit and wrapped a bandage around his head. "He was in shock and kept saying he was dying, but I said, 'No man, you're not dying, I'll get you out of here.'"

The victim was losing blood and the bear had ripped open his water pack, leaving the two men to share Waldhuber's limited supply. They were in such a remote area, it was an hour-and-a-half hike to the nearest lodge, and Waldhuber was out of bear spray. "When it was charging me I couldn't even think, but in the aftermath, I was scared," said Waldhuber. They reached the lodge and saw someone outside. Waldhuber then screamed for help and within 30 minutes, his friend was airlifted to hospital. He will likely remain in Calgary's Peter Lougheed hospital for up to two months.

The two men, both avid, experienced hikers, had been on a eight-day hike when they stumbled upon the sow and her cub. All other hikers were airlifted from the area Thursday morning and the trail was closed for the weekend to give the sow space.

There has been a rash of bear attacks this spring and summer. A Manitoba man fended off a black bear on Saturday, and the week before a black bear killed another Manitoba man. There have been four grizzly attacks in Alberta since June, including the one on Waldhuber's friend. In another of the recent attacks, Canmore resident Isabelle Dube was mauled to death while she jogged with a couple of friends.