It all happened so fast. I was out hunting in the forest, the winter had left snow all over so just mustering through that was difficult as it was. The caress of coldness on my nose and cheeks made me stop for a moment, I buried my face in my gloves to keep warm. I continued on, looking for all the signs of deer here. They were all present, too – fresh hoofprints in the snow, gnawed bark off of the trees, and so on. The deer was close. I knew it was close.
It all happened so fast that I had little chance to even react. I crept past the trees, thinking I would see my trophy buck. But I heard something close by, and before I realized it, there was a grizzly bear so close to me that I could smell the fresh salmon in her breath when she roared. The cubs were so close, I didn’t see them until it was too late. Before I could point my rifle at her, she had already struck me.
It all happened so fast that I thought I was dead, one bear paw into my side knocked the wind out of me, throwing me to the ground. I was lucky the snow was there to take some of the impact. But the mother bear was slowly approaching, ready to tear my face off. I braced myself, and at that moment my rifle fired on accident. It wasn’t pointed at her. It wasn’t pointed at anything. But the sharp discharge was enough to start an avalanche.
It all happened so fast that I was ready to give in. The snow caught me, I was at Mother Nature’s mercy. I saw the bear and her cubs escape. They were quicker to react than I was. I tumbled down the side of the mountain, until I hit softer snow and was almost buried alive.