Jack Stauss
We had done it. We skied the highest peak in Wyoming. It had not been easy, but it had been (mostly) fun, and a great adventure. We were now walking the last seven miles back to the car - a pittance compared to what we had done in the previous two days. Morning sun was shining through the evergreens - the needles sparkling like emerald gems in the light. We chatted merrily about our success as the trail bent around a corner into a braided section through the thick trees. With our eyes on our toes and lost in conservation we didn't see him until we were almost on top of him. But he saw us. A guttural barking growl pulled us out of our jaunt and into fight or flight. The juvenile black bear was sitting in the crook of a tree a couple meters from us. All in a split second Greg readied the spray, I "got big," and the bear reared up. The three of us in animal mode - bear sneering and skiers yelling. And after that second that felt like a year, he ran away down the trail, as did we - the other direction, out of the woods.
Jack is a skier, writer, and environmentalist based in Salt Lake City where he has spent the last 15 years playing in the snow or lamenting that it is summer. This is his first article for Ascent.
