01x03 - Grizzly Bear att*ck

[bunniefuu]

Jenna: For, like, a graduation trip, I decided I wanted to go hiking.

We had no reason to be thinking anything was gonna happen.

Johan: Your kid is in danger...

And you have to step in front of it.

[ Screams ]

Dr. Iwersen: When a grizzly att*cks a human, they bite and release, bite and release.

Jenna, jump!

MacDonald: It was one of the worst places in the park, they said, that a bear att*ck could have occurred.

[ Screaming ]

I have never heard screams like that before or since.

Jenna: I was beyond scared.

I just kind of accepted that I was going to die.

Family is probably the most important thing to me.

Family comes first before everything.

We kind of just have an unspoken bond where we all support each other kind of no matter what. So...

My dad's name is Johan. He came to the U.S. from Holland.

Me and my wife. And she has a sister. I have a brother.

And then we have two kids -- Stephanie, who is now 25, and Jenna, who is 27.

It's an awesome little family -- Me and my girls.

Nine years ago, around August, I had graduated high school.

She graduated as one of the top in her class, in her high-school class.

Got a full scholarship to go to U.C. Irvine, which was awesome.

Trust me, what you're really looking forward to is getting out of your parents' house.

Exactly. [ Chuckles ]

No, actually, the dance department has an outdoor theater on campus.

Isn't that cool?

It's awesome.

Then you'll really be dancing with the stars, right?

Yeah...

[ Both chuckle ]

Jenna: For, like, a senior trip or graduation trip, I decided I wanted to go hiking.

I didn't anticipate that I was going to go through this life-changing event.

We should be in Jackson Hole by tomorrow afternoon.

The plan was to seriously hike in Glacier National Park, to really do as many hikes as we possibly could.

Okay. Maybe start with part of the Teton Crest Trail and do Paintbrush Divide the next day.

It's your trip. You pick.

Okay, let's do that.

Then, when we get to Glacier, we can do Logan's Pass...

Jenna and I decided to drive from San Diego all the way to, basically, the Canadian border.

That's like 36 hours or so.

It's a beautiful drive. You can see for miles and miles.

And some people may think it's boring, but I think -- Find it kind of peaceful and -- and just fascinating to see that landscape.

Jenna: We just figured we'd be gone for like a week and then come back and get back to life as usual.

Let's get our stuff inside quick, huh, before we get too wet.

Yeah.

In Glacier, the first day we arrived, it was late.

We were walking back from dinner, and to our left was just a-a grizzly bear.

Dad, look. A bear.

Oh, wow. Awesome. Let me get a picture of that.

Relatively close. Maybe 30 to 50 feet away.

It's a little unnerving to see a -- like, a bear that close.

That is just awesome, isn't it?

That's cool. Yeah.

All right.

Johan: Of course, that excited me.

It's like "Oh, wow. This is amazing."

You can see the wildlife just kind of like in a zoo.

It feels like you're in a zoo.

And it even feels -- At -- at that point, it felt as safe as being in a zoo...

Which makes absolutely no sense, because there's nothing between you and that animal.

It's an unrealistic feeling of safety, I would say.

Jenna: My dad always wants to get a really early start on hiking, and I usually go along with it.

Jenna: It's right on the trailhead.

What is?

Oh, I know. Right?

It's cool.

Just imagine the -- the wildlife we'll see tomorrow if we get out there before sunrise.

Mm. It says to hike only between business hours.

Well, I go to work at 5:30.

That's 9:00 to 5:00.

That is way too late.

I want to be the first ones on the trail.

In this case, I was really -- After seeing that bear, I was trying to convince my dad to -- to start a little later.

8:30.

6:30.

What are you worried about?

No sooner than 8:00.

It will give us enough time to do both Grinnell and Iceberg Lake.

7:00.

30.

Okay, 7:30.

Okay.

Hope we're still the first ones on the trail.

The sun was just coming up, and so the sky was all multicolored and beautiful.

Really beautiful.

And then that sort of freshness after it rains a lot.

We started walking on the trail.

And when you're walking in an area where there's a lot of bears and it's early, you're gonna be a little bit more on edge.

Map?

Johan: Of course I'd read that you need to have some protection with you on the trail -- Not that you expect to run into anything like that.

But I bought a can of bear spray.

Jenna: So we started walking, and we kind of heard a sound coming towards us.

And it was just a man on a morning walk around the lake by himself.

And, you know, we said, "Hello. Good morning."

He was, like, carrying a cup of coffee.

Johan: A styrofoam cup of coffee in his hands.

Kind of just -- Kind of wandering around.

Really giving you the feeling as if you're entering a park.

I'm talking city park, not a national park.

Little did we know that it's not a walk in a city park.

It's a walk in a national park in the Northern Rockies, which is in the middle of the wilderness.

We felt very happy hiking.

Both of us were just like, "This is -- this is pretty.

This is prettier than we thought it was gonna be."

Jenna: I'll take the lead.

Johan: Wait. What? What?

You don't trust your old man's keen sense of direction?

Ah, we got to stay on the trail.

We got a lot of ground to cover.

All right.

Jenna and I got talking about, you know, her upcoming college, obviously, going to U.C. Irvine, how she's gonna like that.

And I'm talking about, you know, "Maybe I can qualify for the Boston marathon again."

So, what is it? Three and a half hours to qualify?

Uh, 3:15 at one of the feeder marathons.

When, uh, exactly do you start planning on training?

[ Chuckles ] What?

You don't think your old man can make the cut?

Well... You qualified once before.

Twice before. And, besides, I'm training right now.

This hike is going to get me back in shape.

All right, well, not if we don't make it up the mountain.

He loves, like, stopping, taking pictures, whereas I love, like, just going and -- and going pretty fast.

I always get a little impatient with my dad stopping every like two seconds.

I'm taking lots of pictures.

I'm doing one of those interval hikes that Jenna is ahead of me, I'm taking a picture, and I have to run real fast to to -- to catch up with her.

Sometimes when there's nothing to talk about, I would just start singing.

[ Chuckles ] Then we'd both start singing.

Like "Heigh-Ho" or whatever from "Snow White."

[ Chuckles ]

I was like 18.

So, yeah...

You know, just stupid, like, marching songs.

We were goofy.

Maybe we were about four-ish miles in on the trail.

At that point, your nervous energy goes away.

Your fear of something bad happening gets smaller and smaller.

Wow.

Dad? Seriously?

What?

We don't have time.

[ Eagle calling ]

Looking for an updraft.

Johan: I'd seen this golden eagle flying...

You know, across the valley, basically on the updraft of -- of the warm air coming from the valley floor, which was just beautiful.

It's just so serene and... Just -- just incredible sights.

We're not gonna make two trails today if you keep stopping every two minutes.

[ Sighs ]

[ Scoffs ]

Okay. Okay, okay.

I'm done.

I put my camera away 'cause, okay, I'd seen enough of the golden eagle flying over.

And -- and Jenna was pretty adamant -- "come on, Dad. We're gonna have to make it up this mountain."

And the -- and the trail gets kind of steep at one point.

It gets very rocky, as well.

You have a drop-off on the left-hand side, and you got a sheer cliff on the right-hand side while you're going up.

Jenna is ahead of me.

She gets around this blind corner in the trail.

And you have to imagine when you hike up, you know, it's very hard to see around corners, especially if there's a boulder sticking out.

She goes around this corner...

And suddenly she steps back.

There was this look of fear on her face, like there's something bad right there and "Something's gonna hurt me."

I don't think the words are as important as more the sentiment and the emotion and the sound that you're, like, "Your kid is in danger, and you have to step in front of it."

That's that sense that I got immediately.

Not a clue what was going to happen at that point.

Not a clue.

All I see is claws and teeth, and it's looking at you like, "I'm taking you out."

Johan: Jenna and I have a -- Kind of a special relationship.

We are both very easygoing, like to do a lot of active stuff.

She and I hike pretty good distances.

We always want to know what's around the next mountain or the next corner.

And of course we want to see wildlife -- I probably more so than Jenna.

And definitely want to see bears and moose and you name it.

It's just perfect out here.

Look. Another marmot.

Jenna: Growing up, we went to a lot of national parks.

I always just really loved hiking and being outside, being away from typical, like, civilization.

I had read in the National Geographic Magazine this man who hiked the Andes, who trekked, I think, from like, top to bottom.

And that kind of made me want to just go and hike, up in Montana, a lot more vigorously than we had prior.

We went to Glacier for the first time -- I think I was either 8 -- I-I don't remember ex-- the exact age.

I remember just being like, "This is my favorite place in the world."

It was just huge and beautiful, and I really loved it.

Moses: A lot of people call it the backbone of America.

Typically, about two million people come to visit the park each year.

It's a pretty rugged place, and you have to be willing to challenge yourself to see the remote portions of the park.

Johan: It really calms you. "It feeds the soul," I always say.

It really re-energizes you and puts -- puts more spark into your life again.

And just makes you appreciate all the beautiful stuff we have around.

It -- it's just a great feeling.

So we had no reason to be thinking anything was gonna happen.

I was walking around this corner in the trail.

And coming the opposite direction towards us was a mom grizzly bear and two cubs.

It made almost like a human expression of surprise when I saw it.

And we just kind of met sort of head on.

Really close. Like five, eight feet away.

It didn't make a sound.

I felt just immediate fear.

Basically, my instinct was to run away.

I took about two steps just up to where my dad was and fell down onto this rock.

And I immediately blacked out.

Johan: I stepped in front of Jenna.

And I see this thing running at me.

It took between .2 and .7 of a second for impact.

And why I even remember that fragment of a second is bizarre unless you've gone through something like this when you start realizing that time is just a very interesting concept.

That .2-.7 of a second...

Took forever, quite honestly.

[ Snarling ]

[ Growls ]

All I see is claws and teeth.

I see the rest, but that's really what I see -- Because it sticks out.

It's lighter than the surrounding.

And it ends up in the top of my left thigh.

[ Crunch ] No! Aaaaah!

And, like in slow motion, my head kind of looks down at it.

And then the realization set in -- "That's a grizzly bear.

And that's not good."

And then this bear enters my thigh again.

[ Screaming ]

So, I'm like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait.

This is -- this is not good."

And my whole front is exposed.

The bear basically jumped me, and one of its claws hit my face.

[ Screaming ]

The next thing I knew, I was awake.

And I stood up.

I didn't actually see what was happening.

Like, I could see body parts of his, but I couldn't see the whole thing.

Like, I didn't see this bear attacking my dad.

I just saw, like, what I knew to be a bear and what I knew to be my dad and maybe, like, his arm.

Johan: There's a cliff right next to me.

Jenna is behind me, but I think she's okay.

And I see these kind of bushes that didn't look that bad, quite honestly, to jump into.

It was about a 25-feet dive down.

So I literally dove off the mountain into the bushes.

[ Grunts ]

[ Thud ]

[ Grunting ]

[ Growls ]

Jenna: I looked down, and I saw that the bear spray had kind of fallen out of the side pouch where my dad had put it.

The bear spray was already looking kind of beaten up.

I was just like, holding it, and, like, trying to get the safety off, which was actually a really simple mechanism.

But I panicked. I couldn't use it.

Jenna, jump! It's safe!

Jenna!

I'm yelling, "Jenna! Come down here.

There's nothing here."

Jenna: I heard my dad say like, "Jenna, look out"...

Jenna! ...Or, "Jenna, jump off the trail," and saw that the bear was coming at me.

Jenna!

[ Snarls ]

Jenna, jump!

Jenna!

I figured that, I don't know, going down off a ledge, falling down a hill would be better than just getting kind of ripped up by a bear.

You know, you have your -- In these kind of scenarios, you have your -- your options that you would never actually consider in a calm situation.

But I guess you weigh which -- which one's worse.

And I obviously thought the bear was worse.

I remember taking, like, several steps, as if I was running off this ledge.

And the next thing I knew was I was -- I think I blacked out again, and I came to while I was in the middle of a free fall.

And I remember my limbs kind of hitting along the side of rocks, and I remember my foot hitting a rock and my shoe coming off.

And then I landed on this hard ledge, just right on my butt.

So, I was on this smallish ledge.

It was, I don't know, a few feet wide.

[ Breathes deeply ]

I...Sort of looked up.

And to me at that time, it looked like my dad was almost midway down where I had fallen.

I see the bear, which is now down the trail from me, climbing back up, and cocking its head to the left.

And it got on top of me faster than I've seen anything ever move.

It was like split-second.

[ Screaming ] So, I'm -- Luckily, I'm on my stomach and I can put my hands on my neck and -- and -- and -- and just try to protect myself as much as possible.

I could hear my dad screaming.

It was the worst sound to hear.

Johan: [ Screaming ]

Johan: [ Screaming ]

Yeah, it's a pretty awful sound to hear, the parent screaming, 'cause -- Especially someone who's as strong as my dad.

To hear them, like, kind of, sort of screaming at the top of their lungs... is not a good feeling to have as a kid listening to that.

[ Growling ]

Johan: Now this animal is on top of me.

And it's pulling me up on my backpack...

Like, lifting me up and down with my backpack.

So I'm going up from the bushes, and I'm going back down again.

Then I'm like, "W-wait a minute.

If this would happen to Jenna, who had nothing on her back, she's gonna be ripped apart.

That can't be.

I need to take this animal with me. It needs to stay with me."

So I'm just focused on, "Okay, this thing needs to stay with me. This needs to stay with me."

So, somehow, I got ahold of it, and I pulled it down with me about 30 feet off the trail.

[ Screams ]

Jenna: At this point, there was nothing I could do to help my dad.

I had nothing with me. The bear spray was up on the trail.

I didn't have a backpack. It was just me.

So, I looked around the ledge, and I saw a little shrub kind of nearby.

So I thought I would just kind of hide in there.

So I went, ran over to it, got inside of the bush, and then laid in the fetal position, kind of covering, holding my neck and just with my knees to my chest.

I felt, like, no actual emotion, but I remember thinking, like, "I should feel something. This is happening right now."

Like, "Whoa. I am going to die."

But it being all kind of, like, a matter-of-fact kind of feeling, not like, "Oh. I'm gonna die; That's so scary," but "I am going to die, period."

I said kind of under my breath, "Oh, God, oh, God," just to try and get myself to feel some emotion.

So, I was waiting there.

I...was beyond scared, such that I didn't even feel scared.

I just kind of accepted that I was going to die.

[ Breathes deeply ]

Johan: I actually had grabbed the bear and had pulled her with me.

But there was a 30-foot sheer drop, like, "fwoooo!"

And it felt very calm in a way, 'cause "Now I'm falling, it's okay, it doesn't hurt."

Not that I had pain, anyway.

And I -- and I'm down after the 30-feet fall, and I have this bear in my right hand.

And I'm looking at it.

It's a very strange realization when you have a bear in your hand and it feels like you're pinching the scruff of its neck but you really got your whole hand on it.

And it's looking at you like, "What did you just do?"

And with these big, you know, hazel-brown eyes like, "I'm gonna take you out."

There's no, like, emotion, or anything like that.

More like, "I'm taking you out."

Very calm. Collected. Like, "I'm taking you out."

So I'm like, "No, you're not."

So I'm still holding onto this bear.

And my left hand is starting to crawl and trying to feel for a stone.

I'm gonna -- I'm gonna hit this thing in the middle of the face with a big rock.

But all I get is this shale that just kind of crumbles in my left hand.

Like, "Yeah, I'm gonna throw dust in the -- in its face?

It's really gonna get pissed off at that point -- As if it's already not mad at me."

So, like, "No, no, no. I have to get back in protective mode, but at least it's with me."

[ Groans ]

[ Bear growls ]

It's digging on my head. It's, like, clawing.

It's digging in my arm, and I ca...

I mean, I can -- I can keep my -- my hands back there, at least I think.

And I slowly start to drift off.

[ Distorted screech ]

And it starts to feel like I'm in a -- in a movie scene and I'm a stunt double, like, for the main actor.

But I'm getting hurt. And I'm thinking to myself, "Don't the production people of this movie realize that you also protect the -- the -- the stuntman?

Right? You keep them safe?

And I'm not safe right now. I'm really getting hurt."

And then I snap back. And, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

This is not a movie.

It's not some -- some wild-west movie. This is reality."

[ Screaming ]

And then I felt this tooth going into my skull in the back.

And, "Oh, that's not good."

[ Groans ]

And I felt another one.

It's like, "Okay, if I keep you know, this playing-dead thing going much longer -- This animal really wants to take my head off."

And right before that, I already felt something cr*ck in the bottom of my neck.

So I knew something was broken.

Jenna: I looked down over the ledge.

And there was like a few-hundred-foot drop.

And I had thought to myself, "What's better?

Should I just jump off the edge, or should I... get mauled by a bear and die?"

So I, like, contemplated it for a second.

But I think -- I guess that shows that I don't really have a natural tendency to k*ll myself.

Even in that situation, you choose self-preservation as best as possible.

So that's why I guess I chose the bush.

"Okay, if -- if I keep playing dead, I'm gonna be dead.

And I'm no help to my daughter anymore at that point.

So I just need to rip myself loose and get out of this situation again."

Not knowing what was below me, I ripped myself loose again...

[ Screaming ] ...And fell about 25 feet until my feet landed on a rock.

And at that point, just -- Just blood and stuff all over.

And I can't see out of my right eye, but I can see out of my left eye and I can see down.

And I can see, "Okay. The next fall is gonna be death."

Because that's a long fall that's coming after that one.

So, I remember the bear kind of looking down at me.

And... I'm pissed off. I'm really mad.

And so I'm -- I'm solid right now.

"If that thing comes back to me again, I'm gonna just take it and just throw it off the mountain."

It's quite unrealistic, obviously.

But that's what you think at that point.

So, okay. I'm like, "Okay, so it's not coming to me."

[ Breathing raggedly ]

And then it's gone. And then suddenly I hear a scream.

Jenna: [ Screaming ]

[ Sobbing ]

Okay, now it's, like, my turn.

Johan: The worst fear of a parent is to hear your child scream.

She's gonna be ripped apart.

Jenna: The bear took my head in its mouth, and I thought, "It's too bad that I'm not gonna live past 18."

[ Bear panting, snarling ]

[ Breathing raggedly ]

I heard the bear's breathing -- It sounded like it was taxed -- Kind of coming towards me.

[ Screaming ]

[ Bear growling ]

The bear, like, sniffed me.

[ Bear sniffs ]

And then it stood over me, and it put one paw on either side of my head.

[ Screaming ]

[ Gasps ]

Well, at the point I heard the scream, I knew the bear was with her.

[ Screaming continues ]

[ Crying ]

You know, the -- the worst fear of a parent is to hear your -- your child scream... to the point that something really bad can happen to her and you can't do anything.

So, that was -- That was probably the -- The worst moment of the att*ck is the scream of Jenna that was so...

[ Screaming ]

...oh, so deep and so guttural in a way that I knew that that bear was with her, although I tried my best to keep it away from her.

It was the worst sound ever.

I-I hope no parent will ever have to go through that, but I know people will.

But it's -- it's -- It's a horrible thing.

I-it's -- it's hard to describe in words. It's horrible.

Yeah.

At this point, I had come out of the fetal position.

I was kind of on my back.

[ Screaming ]

In, like, a weird moment, I put, as if, like, to push away a dog or something, I put my hands on either side of the bear's head.

And the bear took my head in its mouth and kind of thrashed me to the -- to my right.

Its lower jaw was kind of around my -- my jaw, and then its upper jaw was kind of in -- Around the back of my head.

When it bit me, I didn't feel, like, pain.

I felt just pressure -- Just, like, intense pressure.

I remember feeling the -- Like, the coarseness of the bear's fur.

I was basically nose-to-nose with it.

Felt very vulnerable to have just this animal kind of towering over you in that way.

[ Screams ]

My mind was just completely blank.

Completely blank.

Yeah.

When a grizzly att*cks a human in a defensive att*ck, the potential for damage is enormous.

Their jaws are extremely powerful.

They bite and release, bite and release.

The bear is there to protect its cubs and make sure that you are not a thr*at.

It's quick, it's sudden, and you can only be instinctive and react to try to protect yourself.

[ Screaming ]

[ Roars ]

Then it took my shoulder, my right shoulder, in its mouth and then kind of thrashed me over to the left.

And I just tried to stay still.

I thought if I played dead, if I wasn't a thr*at, that it would go away.

Dr. Iwersen: They make sure that you're not fighting back, and then they recognize that you're not fighting back, that you're laying there.

They presume that you're not going to come back and att*ck their cubs, and they leave.

Jenna: I remember it looked at me, and then it kind of looked away, which I imagined to be in the direction of maybe where its cubs were and kind of trotted off.

So, then I just waited there, like, quietly on my side, on my left side, in the bush for several minutes.

Quietly. Kind of hoping that it had gone away.

The whole situation kind of felt like something that you just don't survive.

That's just kind of the way it seemed.

It was very violent and... strange, very surreal.

Yeah, I just thought that we would... die.

And I thought, "It's too bad that I'm not gonna live past 18."

Jenna: It just had a lot of -- of mass.

It was so dense.

Like, jaws are just so powerful.

I thought it would come back.

I hoped it wouldn't.

This was a violent att*ck.

Because, I think, of the small area that it occurred in the bear would be a little more frightened by two people than one.

Johan stepped in and tried to protect Jenna, and that was seen as an aggressive move by the bear, and it led to a more violent att*ck and a more severe att*ck.

Jenna: So I waited there for I don't know how long.

I probably would have waited there quietly longer, but I heard my dad's voice.

Johan: Jenna!

Jenna! To hear my dad call out -- That was, like, the best sound I could hear in my life so far.

[ Groans ]

Dad!

Dad!

Johan: And she calls back. I'm like, "Oh, good. She's alive."

Jenna!

To hear that, that she's still, you know, with us is like, "Yes."

Because I didn't -- didn't go through this in order to, you know, then lose my daughter in the process.

Are you okay?

I'm okay.

How are you?

My first concern was like, "Okay, if -- if -- She's a girl. I don't want her to be as, you know, injured in her face as I am."

So I say, "How are your eyes?"

Kind of projecting my own injuries onto her.

Uh, they're fine.

Are you okay?

And then I yelled back at her, "It got me kind of bad."

She said something like, "Yeah, my back hurts, but I'm okay."

Did it get your face?

A little.

We were both totally downplaying our own injuries.

I didn't want to tell her that, you know, there -- there were some -- some bad stuff going on with me.

I think I asked if he was okay or how he was, and he didn't really respond.

So that, I guess, is my first clue of how badly injured he was.

I had stuff hanging in front of my face.

And I was worried about my eye.

So, f-first I kind of felt, "Okay, is my eyeball maybe hanging down or something?"

So, I'm feeling okay. There's nothing hanging down.

So, maybe I can -- I can open my lid.

And I opened my eye, and I could see Lake Grinnell, which was -- just -- Most beautiful blue lake I'd ever seen, of course.

So, "I can see out of my eye.

The rest they can fix with a little surgery."

So, then, I'm like, "Okay, what are -- what are these strings?"

And then, going back to these bear stories I heard, there were strings of people's scalp, right, hanging in front of their face.

And I'm like, "Ugh, I have the same thing."

Scalp's hanging from -- so I kind of move it to the side.

And then, okay, I need to feel how much of it is gone, right?

So, I'm going up. And I feel bone, bone, bone, bone.

"Okay. That's all bone."

It's like, "Okay, that probably must be scruffed up in the back of my neck.

I'm sure they can pull it forward and kind of sew it back together again."

So you go through these [Scoffs] bizarre thoughts.

Very kind of, like, practical.

Then I'm looking at my arm, and I see there's this big hole in my arm.

And I'm moving my hands.

And I'm like, "Oh, you could see the tendons move.

That is so interesting.

Look. They can really move like that."

So I'm like, okay. I'm -- I'm done assessing myself.

[ Groans ]

I felt dirty and gross.

I need to get out of this. This is not good.

I need to go see if I can find Jenna or something.

Then I remembered, okay, I have a jacket in my backpack.

And the story from the night before.

I read quite a few stories, actually, about, you know, bear att*cks.

And -- and one story in particular really stuck with me, which was a woman in Alaska that had been att*cked by a black bear, and she had taken her jacket to protect her head.

"I probably should do the same thing because if anyone's gonna see me like this, I'll look horrible." [ Chuckles softly ]

As if, you know you're dressing up for something.

It's, like, so I put the -- Put the head of the jacket on my -- on my own head and left my stuff behind.

I crawled up, back to the ledge again.

And I get a little woozy.

And I'm like, "Okay. It's probably not a good idea to go looking for my daughter."

"She probably doesn't want to see me like this, anyway."

"And I know where she is. And she seems okay.

So I'm just gonna stay here."

Jenna: I don't know what I assumed had happened to my dad.

I think I always kept, like, a thought that he was alive, because I just...

I don't know.

I was... naive that, you know, someone you loved could die.

Dad!

Dad!

I didn't really understand how injured I was.

I didn't know if I, like, moved around a lot if that would hurt things more.

So I just sat down where I was and stayed there.

I tried to sort of assess my wounds and the extent of them.

And I remember, I was feeling around my head, and there was, like, some gashes.

I could tell there was blood in my hair.

I could tell my, like, face was torn open.

I felt, like, a gash in the back of my neck at the base of my skull, and I stuck my finger into, like, the first joint into the -- this hole in my neck.

I thought maybe I should hold pressure somewhere.

So I held pressure. [ Chuckles softly ]

Help!

Help!

We started calling out "Help."

And it was a huge valley. Sound could carry really far.

Help!

Help!

Help!

It felt like may be a half-hour.

It felt, like, longer than I wanted it to be.

As we were calling, I started getting...

Help!

...a little more exasperated.

Help!

Also, my dad seemed to not be calling as much, as frequently.

So I was very worried of how badly he was hurt.

And then I started getting a little bit frantic feeling.

Please! Help us!

Help!

I was just, like, completely physically spent.

We knew it was a really well-hiked trail.

We weren't just kind of in the middle of the backwoods somewhere.

Help!

I knew there would be people coming by.

Help!

What was that?

It was just a matter of when and hopefully sooner than later.

MacDonald: It was one of the worst places in the park.

Help!

I have never heard screams like that before or since.

How's Jenna? - He was covered in blood, was sitting in a pool of blood.

I started to shake. I mean, got really, really cold.

Knapp: The people began tossing down clothing, food.

They were trying to do a rappel rescue.

Man: It's just not working.

Copy that.

Moses: I'm not sure we're gonna be able to save him.

[ Roars ]

[ Crunch ]

Aaaaah!

[ Growling ]

[ Grunting ]

Aaaah!

[ Breathing raggedly ]

[ Screaming ]

[ Gasps ]

[ Screaming continues ]

Death was not an option because I had to protect my daughter.

But I did think I was going to die.

I thought, "This is -- yeah, that's probably gonna be it."

The falls could have easily k*lled me.

You don't just fall and are okay with that.

That didn't bother me whatsoever.

But the animal itself -- I thought that was gonna k*ll me.

It was gonna take me out, and I didn't want that to happen because -- not for me, but I needed to be there for Jenna.

August 25, 2005, I was in Glacier National Park on my honeymoon with my wife, Kathy.

Our hope for that day was to just go for a-a beautiful hike in the mountains.

We're big fans of Glacier National Park.

Been there several times.

MacDonald: It's the most beautiful place I've ever been on Earth.

The mountains of Glacier just feel like home to me.

We had been hiking in Glacier at that point for about six years and had never been to Grinnell Glacier.

So we were excited.

And for whatever reason, we decided to get up and hike really early.

Starting off just kind of slow pace.

And since it's a new trail, we were, you know, taking in the scenery around us.

All of sudden, I thought I heard a scream.

Jenna: Help!

What was that?

An eagle or something. I don't know.

So we kind of, you know, thought about it for a minute and then just went about our hike like -- like normal.

Then we heard another scream.

Jenna: Help!

That's not an eagle.

Go. I'll catch up.

Knapp: It was very frantic. It was -- it was loud.

It was very intense.

It got louder and louder, and you could just hear more and more desperation.

I have never heard screams like that before or since.

Where are you?

Help!

MacDonald: It was a clear call for "Help me."

I looked at Jim and I said, "All right, we need to do something.

You know, somebody's obviously hurt."

I just started running up the mountain towards the voice.

Help!

Help!

She just kept calling, you know, "Help me, help me."

And I kept running, and I kept saying, you know, "I'm coming, I'm coming. Where are you?"

I didn't know where to look. I didn't -- I didn't know what to do other than just follow her voice.

I came around a corner to where the voice should have been.

Hello?

Help!

It was unnerving. I think it went on for about 15 minutes, running up the mountain, trying to find her.

Hello? Where are you?

I looked around, and there was -- there was no one.

There was no one there. There was no sign of anybody there.

There was nothing on the trail.

No scuff marks. Nothing.

Where are you?

Help!

I'm down here! I'm here.

Are you okay?

And I realize. I was like, "She's over the mountain.

She's over the edge of the mountain, and this is not good."

I'm here. Are you okay?

I'm bleeding from my mouth a little bit.

My name is Kathy. What's yours?

Jenna.

Okay, Jenna.

I'm gonna figure out how to get down there to help you.

Where are you? I can't see anything.

I'm under a bush.

Okay. I'm gonna throw a rock.

When you see the rock, let me know.

Did you drop it?

I'll try again.

I see it. You're right above me.

Okay, Jenna, I'm gonna figure out how to get down there.

What happened? Were you hiking?

The bear! The bear got us, and it's still up there!

"U-us"? Who's with you?

[ Voice breaking ] My dad.

I don't know where my dad is.

We're gonna help you, Jenna. I promise.

Okay.

I just -- I thought he probably fell completely off the mountain and is dead.

We made the decision that I would run for help.

It's a father and daughter. They got att*cked by a -- A bear. I heard. How far down are they? - Far.

All right, one of us needs to run back and find a ranger. - I'm faster.

All right, I'm gonna try to climb down to them, then.

Be careful.

You too.

I just started running as fast as possible.

The only way I can describe it is that there was something carrying me that day.

Because I-I ran faster than I've ever run, and I don't remember taking one single step.

[ Snaps fingers ] Like that, your life can change.

Something completely unexpected just will alter your life forever.

Time was probably an important factor.

So I decided I was gonna try and get down to them however I could.

So, from that point, I essentially rappelled down the side of the mountain.

Only, instead of a rope, I was using the weeds and the wildflowers that were growing, you know, out of the side of the sheer rock face, just praying that they didn't give way.

And it was a pretty s-swift drop-off.

And I thought, "Okay, if I slip and lose my footing, I'm probably not going to be able to stop myself and I am -- am going to perhaps keep going straight down."

But I was less concerned about myself and -- and really more focused on the fact that somebody was in serious distress down there.

And if it were me, I would want someone to try and come help me in whatever way possible.

Jenna: I heard rustling, and, for, like, a split second, I thought it was the bear coming back.

But it was the -- the guy coming to see us.

Jenna. Hi.

I'm -- I'm Jim.

K-Kathy's running down the trail to -- to get a ranger.

Help -- help is on the way.

I'm so sorry.

For what?

I immediately apologized, because I thought I probably looked bloody.

[ Chuckles ]

I knew that my mouth was kind of flapping open.

I could tell it was -- it was sliced all the way through, and I didn't know, really, what else I looked like, but I felt bad that he would have to -- We'd have to "Ruin" his day.

Knapp: It was also very windy where we were.

It was very chilly. We're on an exposed rock face.

So, given the -- the temperature and, you know, how windy it was I think -- I thought she needed some sort of warmer clothing.

I was worried she was going into shock.

I don't know if my dad's okay.

Well, what -- what -- what -- What happen here?

Uh, we ran into a bear and her cubs, and we fell trying to get away.

You're, uh... You're out here with your dad?

Yeah, we're on a hiking trip before I go off to college.

Her lip was basically just hanging off.

Her ankle was pointed in sort of a strange direction.

She said, "Well, I want to study dance."

And I remember at that point looking down at her ankle and just thinking to myself, "I don't think that's likely at this point.

Your ankle doesn't look like that's gonna be po--

Make it possible for you."

But I-I-I didn't say that.

I just -- I just kind of nodded and -- and tried not to upset her.

Do you -- do you know where your dad is?

Dad!

Are you there?

Dad!

W-w-what's your dad's name?

Johan. And I haven't heard from him in a while.

Johan!

Okay, all right.

Hey, I'm gonna -- I'm gonna go try and find your dad, okay?

Okay. Okay.

Jenna: I told him my dad was over, you know, to the side.

And so he went to see my dad.

At one point, Jenna yelled, "Someone's here."

Said, "Oh, good. Someone."

So, now I kind of look up -- And it's probably just my left eye looking up to the -- to the right of me at that point.

And I basically see a big guy sliding down the bushes.

Having seen the landscape afterwards I'm surprised how he did that, 'cause that was -- I mean, he risked his own life, basically, to get to me on the ledge.

Hey!

Are you there?

Can you hear me?

I-I looked down and immediately saw just blood everywhere.

I saw Johan for the first time.

To this day, I've never seen anything quite so, you know, gruesome.

Hey. Are you okay?

I don't think I've ever been that close to someone who was that badly injured or that close to someone who I didn't know if he would still be alive in an hour.

[ Roars ]

Jenna: During the att*ck everything was kind of these really condensed, like, almost primordial kind of feelings.

They weren't necessarily, like, human emotions.

I have no clue how long the entire att*ck itself lasted.

I couldn't see very well, and I was very dizzy.

Everything hurt.

Knapp: She was aware, but she was kind of slipping into a sort of state of shock.

You know, she was hoarse.

She'd been screaming for about a half-hour before we'd actually gotten to her.

So her -- her voice was hoarse, and she was -- she was pretty tired.

She told me that she and her father were there on a family trip before going away to college.

The -- t-t-the guy of the two people that found us slid down the mountain right above me.

I could see his face, and his eyes were like sauc--

You know, big plates, basically.

And I'm like, "Oh, that is a bad look on someone's face looking at me because I lo-- Probably look horrible."

How's -- how's Jenna?

Uh, Jenna's -- Jenna's okay.

My -- my wife ran down the trail to get help.

Help is on the way.

I-I dropped my camera. Let's, uh...

Let's not worry about your camera right now, okay?

My name is Jim.

Your leg is...

I'm a physical therapist.

I...

I think I b-broke a couple vertebrae in my neck.

Okay, okay. Look, I'm -- I'm not gonna try to move you or Jenna.

He was covered in blood. His face was covered in blood.

His -- his legs were bleeding.

So, there -- and he was sitting in a pool of blood, basically.

I knew that he was in very dire straits.

Look, I-I-I need to go let Jenna know you're okay.

All right? She's worried about you.

Tell her I'm okay.

Okay. Look, my name's Jim.

I'll -- I'll be right back, all right?

T-tell her I'm okay.

Oh, and, Jim?

Yeah?

[ Clears throat ] Can you find my camera?

Yeah.

At that point, I wandered back, kind of sidling along the side of the mountain back over to Jenna and told her, "Hey, I found your father.

He's alive. We spoke.

You know, he's concerned about you and wanted to make sure you drink some water and -- and get some food in you."

And so she's, "Okay."

I didn't want to let her know the condition her father was in 'cause, you know, she was in enough distress.

So I-I opened the bottle of water and tried to pour it in her mouth.

But because of the way her lip was ripped open and just sort of, you know, hanging off, you know, half of the water I poured in her mouth just kind of came dripping down all over the coat.

So I had her tip her head back a little bit more and poured a little bit more, and it was a bit more successful.

It -- it was -- it was tough going there for a while.

At one point, I started, like, shivering.

Like, I felt really cold.

The next thing I knew, just kind of a few more people were -- were kind of coming, slowly.

MacDonald: By that time, there was a small group of us at the top.

We all started asking, "What do you need? What can we do for you? How can we help?"

And Jim is calling up, you know, "This is not looking good," and, you know, "He's really cold," and just trying to tell us what's going on.

I just remember yelling up, like, "Yeah, I mean, if you've got first-aid kits, food, water, blankets, coats -- I mean anything.

We're -- we're kind of exposed down here."

The people began tossing down clothing...

Food.

All right. That's good.

Uh, anybody have any blankets? Are there blankets up there?

Great. Great.

How about some water?

Excellent!

It was really amazing, just the outpouring of -- of things that came from these random hikers who didn't know -- Who were complete strangers to the people who had been injured.

But people were throwing down, you know, expensive North Face jackets and fleeces and things like that, not knowing if they'd ever see them again -- And, in most cases, didn't ever see any of that stuff again.

We were tying them all together and tossing them over the side, trying to reach him.

And some made it to him. Some didn't.

We were tossing food, whatever we could do.

It was pretty amazing.

They gave me all their jackets.

And I kind of stopped shivering slowly.

The immediate relief kind of transitioned to, like, "This is enough of this."

Like, "I'm -- I'm done with being on the mountain."

Like, "I wish they could get -- get there sooner."

At that point, two female hikers who told me they'd run into Kathy on the trail and that Kathy had explained to them what was going on managed to hike over to where we were.

Two girls came to help us.

And they were great. Heidi stayed with me.

Is my dad okay?

He will be.

And the other girl, Kari, went over to stay with my dad.

Are you comfortable?

Uh, it feels like I'm laying on a rock or stick or something.

There's, um... There's nothing there.

Maybe you should try not to move your back too much. Okay.

She kept checking, and there was no branch I was lying on.

I guess I was just feeling my broken back.

She, like, gave me her jackets and kept on updating me on how my dad was.

I started to shake. I mean, got really, really cold.

You're on the side of a mountain and you're all wet and gross and -- and -- And the wind's blowing.

And so -- so one of the girls put her body on top of mine and said, you know, "This will help you."

How's Jenna?

She's in good hands, but we need to warm you up.

Okay.

Okay.

No, no. Be -- be careful.

You'll get blood on your clothes.

No, no. Shh. It's -- it's okay.

It won't -- it won't wash out.

It's okay.

[ Chuckles ] It's okay. It's all right. It's okay.

All right. All right. Cover you up.

Was this incredible sense of, like, "Wow."

And a fellow human being's really just taking care of you.

It was just amazing. Just amazing.

I just want to take a nap.

Oh, no, no, no.

We need to -- We need to keep you awake, okay?

Okay, Johan? Johan?

Yes? Hey, you know what? We found something.

We found something you'll like.

What? See? See?

[ Both chuckle ]

My camera.

We've got that.

All right? You're all right.

Just keep -- Keep you warm.

Thank you.

All right. We're okay. You're okay.

[ Breathing deeply ]

Thank you.

Thank you.

If we use the helicopter and the helicopter crashes...

The victim is dead and maybe other people, too.

First, being found by people -- It was just relief, "We're gonna get out of here. We are safe."

Maybe, like, an hour into it, the pain kind of kicked in.

My shoulder was throbbing.

My neck and the back of my head was throbbing.

I had this like lump on my forehead.

And it became uncomfortable... Just being there.

MacDonald: I finally came to somebody who was dressed, you know, in ranger gear and he was also leading a group of about 40 people who he couldn't then abandon on the trail.

So, right away then, he radioed for help.

Man: All advised -- Two hikers have been involved in a bear att*ck in Glacier Valley.

All medical personnel is required to the scene.

Copy that. I'll head right out. Over.

[ Engine turns over ]

I was working my job on the west side of the park and overheard on the park radio that there had been a bear att*ck.

Bear att*cks are really rare. Doesn't happen very much.

It's wilderness.

So when you hike into their habitat, you never know where they're gonna be.

[ Helicopter blades whirring ]

I hoped we could find a landing zone nearby, because flying helicopters in the mountains is always a challenge.

And hoping that we could do something to help the people that had been injured.

Jenna: There's still, like, a bear out there somewhere.

I didn't know where.

I just wanted to get out of that place where that, you know, awful thing kind of happened.

Jenna was basically stable, but the bigger issue was Johan and that he had bled a lot and, in my opinion, was at risk of bleeding to death.

Jenna was...

Was very concerned about her father's well-being and his safety and his life.

Moses: I was astounded that -- That Johan and Jenna survived the fall off the trail, let alone the bear-att*ck event.

Okay, this looks good.

Find some good points and set your anchors.

When I got there, Johan was about 60 or 70 feet below the trail.

And he -- It was obvious that he had been there for quite a while, and he had lost a lot of blood.

His blood pressure's 80 over 30.

His pulse is 44.

Johan, I'm Gary Moses.

I'm gonna get you out of here. How does that sound?

Johan: Sounds great, Gary.

I think my neck might be broken.

Yeah?

Yeah. I think it's a C2.

Second cervical vertebrae. I'm a physical therapist.

I pretty much had to believe when he said he thought his neck was broken, his neck probably was broken.

So that was a real complicating factor in trying to figure out, how were we gonna effect this rescue?

Because we haul this guy with a broken neck up that cliff face, we could unintentionally cause him further harm.

Knapp: We sat there for several hours as the park personnel tried to figure out what to do with them or how to get them out of the position they were in.

It was one of the worst places in the park, they said, that a bear att*ck could have occurred because it was so hard to get people there.

Johan: I've done many marathons.

So I was able to, in a way, disassociate myself from the situation -- Because when you run a marathon, you go through physical pain.

So that probably totally helped me to keep me dissociated from any physical injury I may possibly have and just keep me focused on, "I'll get rescued."

[ Tapping ]

The park staff tried to mount a technical climb from the trail above to sort of climb down to where they were and, I'm guessing, try to carry them out in some way on -- on stretchers or on someone's back.

[ Tapping ]

They were trying to do a rap-- a rappel rescue.

So they were trying to bring in a basket and hook it into the mountain and rappel down to them.

And it felt like hours that they tried to do that.

You know, but it was probably 20 minutes or so.

And they just couldn't get the -- the gear to adhere to the mountain.

So then, you know, you could hear the radios start to talk about a helicopter rescue and how that might work.

But there's no place to land the helicopter.

So that meant, too, there was no way to get first aid in.

The incident occurred at, like, about 9:00 in the morning.

I didn't get on scene until about 11:30, 11:40, something like that.

So a couple of hours had already passed.

In the medical field, they always talk about the golden hour.

You to have the patient in the operating room within an hour of the incident, well, that had already long passed.

So the big concern was ju that I'm not sure we're gonna ble to save him.

Johan: I think my neck's broken.

Moses: Yeah?

I'm a physical therapist.

Then you'd know, wouldn't ya?

Uh-huh.

Hold his head please.

Yeah.

Okay. This might be a little uncomfortable, all right?

There we go.

Get you set there.

There you are.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Can you prep an I.V.?

Yes.

So, when the medics finally got there, it felt like a really -- I just felt like, "Okay, we're safe."

Like, "They're here. We're safe."

The only thing we can do from here is get off the mountain and go to a hospital.

I was more concerned about everyone around me.

Making sure that they were okay and that they weren't gonna hurt themselves as a result of me, you know, being so stupid to be part of, you know, something like this that I shouldn't have been.

Johan was acting in a protective manner and the bear was acting in a protective manner, and when they looked eye to eye you wonder if they thought the same thing.

Johan was doing his best to protect his daughter, and this bear was doing what she felt necessary to protect her cubs.

And that made this encounter a little bit unique because of that father/daughter, mother/cub situation.

Moses: Here's this guy that's fallen down a cliff, holding on to a grizzly bear, trying to defend his daughter from being injured by this bear, and he's still able to tell me his name, he's able to talk intelligently and converse.

Because of where he was lying, there's a little bit of water running down this little crevice, so he had been wet and because it was in the shade a little bit and was relatively cool, the wind was blowing, he was also a bit hypothermic, so I had to cut all of his clothes off of him to try to re-warm him, to get those wet and bloody clothes away, and Johan had the mental capacity to make a joke in the middle of that.

This guy is trying to take off my pants to kind of, you know, assess the wounds and I'm like, "Whoa. Wait a minute." [ Laughs ]

Whoa.

Good thing I wore clean underwear.

Mom was right, huh? [ Chuckles ]

I was just astounded by Johan suffering all these injuries and bringing up a joke to try to lighten the situation.

That was just my first inclination of what a positive mental attitude this guy had.

MacDonald: The group of us that is sitting up, you know, on the top of the mountain, just kind of with bated breath, listening to the radio calls go back and forth.

How we coming with that belay?

Man: It's just not working.

Copy that.

And, you know, their decision process is -- Is for the safety of the people who are injured, but, you know, they were trying to figure out how to get them off the mountain.

We decided that we should at least evaluate the possibility of the alert helicopter coming in.

Dispatch, we better start thinking about a short-haul rescue.

Roger that.

Ken's on it.

Copy.

Short-haul is a very different type of rescue.

It's like learning to fly all over again because you're not so much worried about flying the helicopter as you are the end of that line, which is 100 feet away.

You're more interested in how that's swinging, where it's going, than you are the oscillations of the helicopter.

It's like threading a needle, basically, from a distance.

It's one of the hardest things you can do in a helicopter.

We pick up the paramedic at the end of a 100-foot, Kevlar logging line.

Lift him up vertically, fly him to the patient, and then lower him vertically to the patient.

He then unhooks himself, we back off, wait for his call.

He loads the patient.

Bring the line back.

He then hooks up both himself and the patient, lift them up vertically, and take them to a suitable landing site where we can put them down, land ourselves, and then bring them into the helicopter for transport to the hospital.

If we use the helicopter, and as difficult as it is, and the helicopter crashes, the victim is dead and maybe other people, too.

But if we don't use the helicopter and try to raise the victim up the ropes, because of the extent of his injuries and the timeframe that had gone on, he may be dead that way, too.

So it was a weighing game of is the risk worth the benefit?

And we decided that it was worth the risk.

Justus: On that day, I was a pilot with about 17 years experience, but this was going to be the first short-haul rescue as well as the first bear mauling that I had been on.

I was a little bit apprehensive.

Jenna: I started hearing the sounds of, like, a helicopter.

It sounded like it was coming nearer and going further.

It sounded like it was circling.

I was just, like, thinking, just, like, "Get to us to a hospital, like, get us to a hospital, let's go to a hospital."

Just kind of, like, I want to get off the mountain.

I, you know, it's a beautiful view, but in that circumstance, you know, we kind of wanted to get on our way and get treated.

At the location where they were att*cked by the bear, it was kind of a rock cliff area.

The trail's three feet wide, it's a steep rock cliff like this up above it and a steep rock cliff down below it.

If short-haul fails...

Somebody dies.

It was a very tricky, very difficult rescue.

The location that Johan was, was in that kind of a tight little chimney, so there wasn't a lot of room to really bring the rescuer in on the end of that line without knocking myself or Johan off the cliff.

There must have been 150 people lined up on the trail just watching the whole thing.

When you're trying to fly a helicopter against a vertical wall, there's not a lot of room for error.

And then the wind currents in the mountainous topography make it that much more difficult.

The pilot has to get the basket and the medic down to these victims, but he's flying the helicopter up here, 'cause you've got to bring the rope in.

See how the rotors now are getting closer and closer to that rock wall.

There's you know, this point where they kept trying to go in and trying to go in with the basket and they just weren't making it.

I couldn't judge his height above the ground.

You're basically leaning out the side of the helicopter, looking down the rope.

And judging the person's height above the ground, typically by the shadow that they throw onto the ground.

When you're dealing with a cliff edge like that, they're not throwing any shadow.

I was counting on him telling me, "I'm 10 feet above the ground.

Eight feet above the ground."

10!

Five!

I hear a helicopter sound, and Gary says to me, "Well, that's the sound of your rescue."

And, okay, sound came back I think one more time, and then it just didn't come back at all.

I'm like, "Well, where is the rescue?"

I basically just stopped and waited for the park ranger to get on the radio and then talk me in.

I was able to look at the pilot and give him hand signals to help do the final direction to the scene.

Three.

Gary said, "No, no, no, this is the real sound.

Now we're gonna take you off the mountain right now."

"You're gonna get the ride of your life.

You're gonna get the best view of your life."

So I was looking forward to it.

I was like, "I hope it's not that scary 'cause I do not like wild rides."

They put a board under me, secured me on it, and lowered a rope and there was a guy sitting on the rope and some husky-looking guy with a mustache.

That's what I remember.

Later on, I learned he called himself "The dope on the rope."

[ Laughs ]

Unfortunately, he was my only view 'cause I got no view of the valley whatsoever.

I wanted a beautiful view.

I was like, "Oh, well. That was disappointing."

It was very comfortable, and the way the pilot put me down on the asphalt was just as gentle as can be, and then they put me in an ambulance and it was the first time I was actually really in a warm environment, and it felt so good.

It was warm and clean.

You see the basket lift off and we all, you know, stood up and started cheering on the mountain, and it was a very beautiful moment.

A long time coming.

It was incredibly beautiful to see.

Knapp: We were sitting there for quite a long time with Jenna.

She just sort of sat there and just kind of watched what was happening and really didn't say much.

You know, a couple of the other hikers tried to talk to her, engage her, and keep her spirits up.

You were right. This is a great view.

Great view, right, Jenna?

Yeah.

You know, she was responsive.

But she just, you know, she really was very quiet most of the time.

The helicopter just left with your dad.

They'll be back for you soon.

He get out okay?

Yeah. Yeah, he did.

Almost done, Jenna.

Okay, we're ready down here.

Justus: Roger that.

Maybe a half hour later, they got her off.

Cheers -- Cheers on the mountainside to see her get lifted off, as well.

[ Cheers and applause ]

It was kind of an amazing feeling in the wind.

I felt, like, completely safe.

Johan: I fully trusted everyone and...

And they sure made -- you know, they fulfilled their promises.

They did fantastic [voice breaking] Both in...

I get -- I get emotional when I talk about all these people that helped us.

Even though it's their profession... they were awesome.

Jenna: The first time that I saw my dad, I just started bawling and then my dad started crying, also, and like I told him that he was my hero, and that he saved my life.

Yeah.

I don't doubt that he saved my life.

I didn't feel I'd saved her life.

I still kind of felt bad that I'd taken her into the situation in the first place.

But that was the best thank you I've ever received, obviously.

We take care of our kids to he point that we die before something would happen to our child.

Jenna: We're so lucky.

I can't believe that he lived after all that.

Throughout my body I had at least 26 big wounds -- Like big wounds.

Not like your scratches or scrapes or whatever.

No -- big wounds.

60% to 80% of my scalp was gone.

Just gone.

That's the bone I was feeling.

My second vertebrae in my neck, C2, had a compound fracture what that means it's broken in many spots.

Just to give a -- How that compares -- Christopher Reeve, he got paralyzed right below that spot.

My eye, the claw had gotten in here, had broken the bottom part of my eye socket and ripped the muscle here.

Now, to try to get back to normal again, that took three and a half years.

And normal I would say both your mental ability to deal with it and your physical abilities to get back again to what I wanted to be.

MacDonald: I heard he ran a marathon less than six months after the bear att*ck and did it in under four hours, and, you know, just an amazing recovery.

Jenna: In comparison, I always think of mine.

My own injuries was like nothing.

I broke a vertebra in my back, and I broke my tailbone.

Yeah, this shoulder got bitten.

I, like, sort of lacerated my Achilles on my right foot, got bit around, yeah, the head, so I had, like, lacerations on the back of my head, and then, of course, like, my mouth.

Plastic surgeons asked if me if I wanted the scar to like, I don't know, if they wanted me to do something about it or -- I don't know, I like that it's there because it reminds me of like a part of me and something that happened.

Scars in general, they just show life experience, so...

I think Jenna and Johan are very inspiring people.

They've survived an incident that very few could survive, but they did.

I think they've handled it extremely well.

They've gone on in life and used it not as a crutch or a problem, but have benefited from it and grown from it and gotten better.

Jenna has chosen to follow the medical profession and, as I understand it, is about to get her internship completed at a hospital in New York City, where she's working in emergency surgery.

Jenna: I went back to the exact trail that we did.

I've done that at least twice now, the trail we were att*cked on.

Johan: I'm not a person who leaves things unfinished.

So I had to finish the trail, and I wanted to see, in a way, was it worth it for us to have taken this trail and to got att*cked the way we got att*cked, 'cause what if the end of the trail was just kind of like, "Eh"?

But it was beautiful.

When you get to the end of Grinnell and you get in front of the glacial lake and the glacier is right there, it's just spectacular.

I'm like, "Okay.

Yeah, Jenna. I picked a good trail.

Never got to finish it, but today I did."

After this rescue, Johan and I have become great friends.

We've spent a week every year in the park hiking together for the -- for the last nine years.

When I go back to Glacier every year, it's like I feel that's where I'm coming home.

I'm coming home again to a place I could have nearly d*ed, but didn't.

I got through this horrendous thing, so I feel, like, stronger for it.

At the same time, yeah, I don't want it to be, like, the thing I did in my life, like, 'cause it's not, it's a thing that happened to me.

When you go through a situation like this or you go through a life-and-death situation with -- with one of your kids, it does change your relationship.

You really -- You've experienced something that a lot of other people haven't together, and so it goes without saying that when you're together, you feel more whole...

[Voice breaking] Than... when you're apart.

Yeah, it's a -- it's a -- It's a very special -- [ chuckles ] It's -- I don't -- I don't think words can describe the type of relationship when you go through something like that, and you both come out good at the end -- Really good.

I'm sure Jenna feels the same way we can be together, we don't have to say anything.

We -- we just know.

We c-- We have each other's back.