A backcountry trip in B.C.’s Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park turned into a nightmare for travel blogger Shalee Super, who found herself nose-to-nose with a grizzly bear on August 21st.
Camping overnight at Lake Assiniboine, Super was alone after her partner left at sunrise to climb Mount Assiniboine. As she packed up, she heard heavy steps outside and watched the shadow of a claw stretch across her tent. Peeking out, she came face-to-face with a grizzly.
Super fired a blast of bear spray at point-blank range, but the animal returned with a second grizzly close behind. With no time to waste, she bolted barefoot across a freezing talus field and watched from above as the bears ripped her tent apart.
After nearly an hour, Super salvaged what gear she could and hiked 4.8 miles back to the trailhead. Despite losing most of her camp, she was unharmed—and surprisingly calm about the whole thing. She believed the bears were likely young siblings, curious rather than aggressive.
Her final take? Respect the wild. “I was the outlier in their home,” she said. “Bear versus man? Still bear, every time.”
