LAKE LOUISE – A snowboarder had a wild experience at Lake Louise ski resort in more ways than one when he encountered a grizzly bear last week.
British snowboarder James Hardy, who has lived in Banff since last summer, posted a video showing his surprise as he went by a big bruin meandering along the side of Cameron’s Way ski run on April 24.
“Oh, it’s a griz – f…,” he exclaimed in the video.
Hardy caught the footage of the bear on his GoPro as he and a buddy unintentionally came across the big bear on their last run of the day at about 3 p.m.
While the bear initially started walking towards them, Hardy said the grizzly showed no signs of aggression. In fact, it soon turned back around and kept travelling in the direction it had been.
“It wasn’t anything threatening. As we went past, it just looked at us and just went along,” he said.
“He wasn’t even fazed by us.”
Hardy knows the chances of seeing a grizzly bear while snowboarding at a ski resort are slim, but the experience is one he will always remember.
“I wanted to be safe, but my heart was literally pounding in my chest,” he said.
“It was very surreal. It was once-in-a-lifetime and is probably never going to happen to anyone I know.”
Leigha Stankewich, marketing and communications manager for Lake Louise ski resort, said staff first spotted the grizzly on the Ski Out, which was already closed, on Wednesday (April 24) at about 1 p.m.
The bear was also seen again on Pine Cone Way, which is now also closed.
“At this time, both Larch and frontside access were closed as our team monitored the situation closely,” she said.
“We were able to manage lifts and terrain closures to keep guests separate without the need to force the bear anywhere. As soon as it was off the leasehold, we resumed normal operations.”
Stankewich said no further sightings have been reported since.
“Parks Canada was notified but no further action taken,” she said.
After Hardy and his buddy Ryan Smyth had started down Cameron’s Way, they noticed a “little black dot” about 400 metres down the one-kilometre long blue run.
“Then it was, ‘that’s a f…ing bear’,” said Hardy.
“We rang ski patrol to let him know that there was a bear crossing the run, and it looked like the bear had actually gone into the woods.”
Hardy said ski patrol told them they were on their way to close off the run.
He said they were advised against skiing further down the run for another five to 10 minutes to make sure the bear had moved on. He said they couldn’t go back up the run or into the trees and down was the only way out.
After waiting for at least 20 minutes, and figuring the bear had gone off into the trees, the two buddies started down Cameron’s Way again, but spotted the bear about 70 metres away as they came over a crest.
“The bear spotted us and he turns around and starts walking back towards us, so I said to my mate ‘we need to go now, we need to get the hell out of here’,” said Hardy.
“The run was quite wide, so it was like we have enough room for us to get past, so I turned the camera on and literally just straight-lined it. We gave him plenty of room.”
Hardy said the encounter was unintentional and they did their best to give the bear space so as not to add stress to it.
“He carried on the same way he was going,” said Hardy, who works as a maintenance supervisor for a Banff hotel.
Kim Titchener, founder of Bear Safety & More who has worked on wildlife conflict reduction programs with government agencies, communities and industry for close to 20 years, said this is a tough time of year for bears coming out of hibernation.
“I’m sure that was a very stressful experience for that grizzly bear to come out onto that landscape and see those people,” she said.
“We can’t always suppose that this is a bear that has been here before and knows the area.”
Titchener said she was pleased the ski resort acted quickly to close areas to give the bear space and security.
She said greater awareness will be needed moving forward as climate change may mean bears start emerging earlier and earlier from their winter dens.
“You have this weird in between season with this spring skiing and bears waking up,” she said.
“It’s a stark reminder that our world is changing and it’s definitely starting to impact the bears as well.”
In addition, ski resorts may need to be thinking about bear management plans earlier in the year, said Titchener.
“I think it would be wise of the ski industry to consider their management plans not just in the summer months,” she said.
“Even in the shoulder parts of that bear hibernation period, we have to be prepared that we could have bears on the hill and come up with some bear safety messaging for spring skiing.”
In mid-December, a black bear darted across a busy ski run at California’s Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe in front of skiers and snowboarders, almost taking out one of the skiers. It was reportedly running to its mother on the other side of the ski run.
In Banff, Canmore and Kananaskis Country, bears are slowly emerging from their dens.
According to the April 18-25 bear report provided by Bow Valley WildSmart covering an area from Banff National Park's east gate to Bow Valley Provincial Park, bear activity continues to increase as reports of tracks and bears in the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country continue to roll in.
In Banff, bear No. 122, aka The Boss, was the first out of his den this year on March 18.
In 2020, he was out of the den as early as Feb. 28 – then the earliest a grizzly had been recorded out of the den in Banff in the previous decade – while he was out as late as March 29 in 2021, the latest he has been seen.
It is not clear if the grizzly bear at the Lake Louise ski hill last week is a known bear.
“Parks Canada received a report of a bear at the Lake Louise Ski Area just below Larch last week," said James Eastham, a spokesperson for Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay field unit.
"There have been no further sightings or reports since.”
