Go ahead...hehehe...make my day
Posted on 09/11/2005 4:46:29 PM PDT by Archidamus
•As he's mauled by the bear, the marathoner can think only of his youngster's safety
In the split second before he saw the grizzly's fangs, Johan Otter heard his daughter Jenna's startled voice.
"Oh NO!" Jenna Otter, 18, had been hiking just ahead of her dad as they zigzagged up the steep switchbacks of the Grinnell Glacier Trail at Glacier National Park on Aug. 25. As she turned a blind corner just above the tree line, she stumbled into the path of a sow with two cubs.
The mother bear surged straight for the man. Her teeth sank into his right thigh, and her long claws raked his face, shattering his right eye socket.
In the surreal moments that followed, he tried to keep the bear focused on himself.
"Stay with me," he remembers thinking. "Just don't go to Jenna."
And so the bear, and the 43-year-old hospital administrator from Scripps Memorial Hospital, locked in an ancient battle hardwired into each of their genes: Protect your young at all costs. Even your life.
Otter, a marathoner, threw himself 30 feet down an embankment with the bear in pursuit to try to get further away from his daughter. The bear, estimated at about 400 pounds, landed on top of his back.
She had an "out of this world strength," said Otter. "I was like a rag doll, and I weigh 185 pounds." She flung him back and forth. By then, he could feel his spine had fractured. (Doctors would later find five breaks.)
Frantic, he tried to cover his head with his arms, as hikers are warned to do by park rangers.
"I felt her tooth go into my scalp," he said. Then he felt his scalp rip clean away.
Otter recounted his ordeal last week from Harborview Medical Center where surgeons bolted his battered body back together.
With his head clamped in the bear's jaws, he could hear his skull crack. And just as suddenly, he felt the bear release him.
He lay wedged into a stream, on a small embankment 50 feet below the trail. He couldn't move. What he couldn't see was his daughter curled into a fetal position, on a ledge 20-feet above him, her eyes wide open, facing the bear. The bear clamped down — biting first Jenna's face, then her shoulder.
Jenna didn't flinch, her father recounted later. "That's courage."
The bear, finally spent, left the two alone.
The pair, bleeding and shaken, yelled for help and within half an hour, four hikers discovered them.
Jenna Otter was treated at Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Montana, and released in good condition.
Johan Otter was airlifted to Harborview. Despite arriving with his skull exposed and having lost half his blood, he was conscious.
Doctors stabilized him until Dr. Nicholas Vedder and a team of plastic surgeons could transplant a square-foot of thin sheet muscle from his right side to make a new scalp.
Otter was released from Harborview. Doctors have said they're not sure yet how much of his eye function he'll recover, but he can already wiggle his toes, so they're optimistic about his recovery of movement.
The only thing he won't get back, for sure, is hair.
That doesn't matter to Otter. "I'm so lucky," he said.
Everything is relative.
Might have been a different story if they had had a gun.
I won't go around in bear country without something whose caliber doesn't start with a number of ".4" or greater.
So, what do you think? Should people be allowed to carry weapons in national parks? Would a pistol have been enough to at least scare a grizzly away?
I read this in the local rag on Friday, an amazing story! This guy is lucky to be alive!
OMG .. and he survived this??
WOW!
I've heard 00 buck closely followed by slugs are the best bear repellent. Of course, I wouldn't really care to test the theory myself. ;)
National Parks in the lower 48 do not allow firearms in the back country except for a very few exceptions. A better choice would be a couple of cans of pepper spray.
"Would a pistol have been enough to at least scare a grizzly away?"
Well I am just truly a city girl, but my understanding is that you don't want to rely on scaring them.
"So, what do you think? Should people be allowed to carry weapons in national parks? Would a pistol have been enough to at least scare a grizzly away?"
A very lucky shot with a pistol could do it - otherwise 300 magnum is minimal for reliable short range protection.
In bear country, you're probably better off carrying a Magnum, even if it isn't in a caliber starting with a number of .4 or greater.
A Desert Eagle .50 cal AE would probably be a good bet.
Amen to that. Going into bear country unarmed is dangerous and foolish.
IIRC, 12 gauge is something like .68 caliber, so it qualifies. :)
Grizzly spoor has little bells and smell like pepper.
Um... a pistol is not for scaring the bear off. Pissed off bears do not scare.
You use the major caliber pistol to try to STOP the bear (which usually means headshots if you can make them) when it charges you. Bears are faster, stronger, and heavier than man.
With cubs present, No. But it might save your life. Ruger makes a model called the ALASKAN. Not lightweight, two inch barrel. But it comes in 454 Casull or 480 Ruger.Close in, it can't hurt.
You want to know how to tell that there's a bear in the area?
You see some cans of pepper spray on the ground that look like they passed through a bear's digestive system.
Also, please cite the regs on firearms for the National Park system.
Larger than that, I have available .40 S&W, .44 Spl, .44 mag or .45 ACP but the .357 seems to be the best combination of portability and punch. Any informed opinions as to adequacy of the .357 would be appreciated
I've heard of .357 Mag just bouncing off of some bears' skulls. Give me a .44 Mag, .45 ACP, or something bigger.
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