An Alaska State Trooper spokesperson this week said the only person who may be able to give an account of Monday’s bear attack on Mount Emmerich is the victim.
University of Alaska Southeast professor Forest Wagner, 35, was mauled while leading a field mountaineering course near the Kicking Horse River. Nine students and two teaching assistants were on the trip.
Trooper spokesperson Megan Peters said the group was spread out when the attack occurred.
“I don’t know if anybody actually witnessed it or not. It sounds like chances are if anything the only person that can give us a good account of what happened would be the person who was mauled,” Peters said.
Reached at his Anchorage hospital room, Wagner said through a friend that he would not comment. He released a brief statement through the hospital’s media relations department: “Hi everyone! Thanks for your outpouring of support. I am in stable condition… I expect to be here for 1-14 days. I love you all very much and will update as my condition improves.”
Wagner initially was listed in critical condition and then upgraded to serious condition. Trooper and university representatives said they could not provide the extent of Wagner’s injuries.
No students were injured in the attack, according to a UAS press release.
Katie Bausler, public relations and marketing director with UAS, said Wagner was attacked by a sow with cubs. Troopers were notified of the incident at 11:53 a.m. when a student hiked down the mountain to get cell phone reception and call for help.
The students were on the tail end of a five-day Mountaineering 1 class and were descending the mountain when the attack occurred, Bausler said.
Troopers responded to the scene with a Temsco Helicopter, lifting Wagner from the scene. Wagner was then transferred to Anchorage via a LifeMed helicopter.
The university contracted with Temsco to evacuate the remaining people from the mountain, Bausler said.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game regional supervisor Ryan Scott said local wildlife trooper Trent Chwialkowski spoke with Wagner, who reported a brown bear attacked him. A student in the group reported they also saw a cub in the area.
Scott said the department is hoping to interview Wagner and the group of students in coming weeks.
“We’re waiting patiently to talk with them. We want to give them time to decompress,” Scott said. “We want to be sensitive to an event like that and we have reached out to the university and certainly expressed our concerns.”
Scott said there are many details the department would be interested in learning about, including what the group was doing when the attack occurred, when the bear was first seen and how members of the group reacted.
“Hopefully, they can answer some of those questions and we’ll have a much clearer picture of what actually happened,” Scott said.
Fish and Game doesn’t have any plans to dispatch the bear at this point, he said Wednesday. “We don’t have numerous reports of an aggressive bear from that area. It seems like an isolated incident,” Scott said.
UAS professor Kevin Krein came to Haines to supervise the students. Krein declined comment when contacted Tuesday, as did several students.
The students returned to Juneau on Tuesday via ferry.
Wagner has been coordinating and teaching in the outdoor studies program since 2006. He works in the off-season as a mountain guide and is a graduate student in Northern studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.