Two Scottish climbers are extremely shaken up after narrowly surviving a grizzly bear attack in Banff National Park.
The pair, Greg Boswell and Nick Bullock, were attempting a practice route on Mount Wilson, which is located along the Icefields Parkway in the Alberta Rockies.
It was dark out, and they had just begun bushwacking through the forest, retracing their steps back towards their car, Bullock wrote in a blog post.
Suddenly, he heard Boswell shout "Bear, aaaaaaargh.”
Bullock spun around to watch Boswell run past him, followed closely by a grizzly.
The bear briefly paused to look at Bullock, before noticing that Boswell had fallen.
"I’m not sure at this point what other people would do, but Boswell is Boswell and the bear just didn’t appreciate this."
Boswell attempted to kick the bear away, but no luck — "it bit straight though his brand new boot as if it were a carpet slipper. It lunged once more and crunched into his shin, placing a paw on his other leg before lifting him off the ground."
"I’m not sure at this point what other people would do, but Boswell is Boswell and the bear just didn’t appreciate this," Bullock wrote. "He grabbed the bear’s mouth and [pried] apart the jaws."
The pair ran into the woods, and eventually managed to collect their equipment and make it down the mountain. It was a three-hour descent, followed by a two-hour drive to the hospital.
Parks officials have closed the area for the rest of the winter, in order to give the bear space to hibernate.
Boswell, who, according to BBC News is one of Scotland's leading climbers, wrote on Facebook that he's OK, "just a little shook up and sore." He posted photos below, which might be considered graphic, from Banff Mineral Springs Hospital of his injuries.
WARNING, GRAPHIC: CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PHOTOS
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