How a friend and a blackout saved a hunter from a bear attack 

Gavin Haakenson remembers seeing the brown bear charging. He remembers its teeth. He remembers trying to raise his rifle as it closed the roughly 10-foot gap between them. What happened after that is a blank space in his memory, and Haakenson is grateful for the blackout.

The Alaska moose hunter escaped the September 2 attack with no broken bones, no stitches, and remarkably little memory of having a brown bear on top of him, Outdoor Life reported. His friend, Ethan Yeager, was there as well, firing his pistol as the entire encounter unfolded in under 10 seconds.

“Last thing I remember was trying to shoulder my rifle and the bear jumping at me,” Haakenson told Outdoor Life. “Then I don’t remember what happened. That’s when my black out started.” Considering what happened next, you can hardly blame his consciousness for clocking out for a bit. 

Ten seconds is apparently plenty of time for a nightmare

Haakenson and Yeager had been scouting for moose near the Killey River outside Soldotna after work. The former had spent two years watching a particular bull in the area and hoped it might finally be large enough to legally harvest this season. Instead, another very large animal found him first.

The pair had called for moose near some swampy ponds without any luck and were making their way back to Yeager’s truck around dusk when Haakenson heard something to his right. A brown bear was already charging at full speed, proving that humans weren’t the only ones out for a hunt that night. 

“I saw its face. Its teeth were out,” Haakenson recalled. “It hit me in the shoulder and knocked me down.”

Yeager fired his pistol, but with the bear blocking his view of his friend, he initially avoided shooting directly at it. Haakenson was trapped on his back beneath the animal. After two shots, the bear rose, and Yeager continued firing as it ran away, possibly striking it in the rump.

“The whole thing happened in under 10 seconds,” Haakenson said. The friends then made the urgent hike back to the truck while yelling “hey bear,” this time, he admitted, “with some fear in our voices.” Significantly, the hunter’s reaction was way more pressing than that of a man in Romania who recently went viral for casually scrolling on his phone with a bear nearby.

The coat was a victim too

Medics later found that Haakenson had escaped with bruising, a claw scratch on his shoulder, and no broken bones. He will need about six weeks of physical therapy for his shoulder, but the bear’s claw tore through his coat without severing his skin.

His gear wasn’t quite as fortunate. The attack dented his riflescope, scratched his gunstock, and left much of one sleeve of his puffy coat missing. KUIU is reportedly replacing the shredded jacket.  

Afterward, wildlife officers searched the scene and found digging sites and scraps from Haakenson’s coat, but no blood, hair, or bear. Of course, bears aren’t always this difficult to locate, if you count that one California bear recently wandered straight into a live television broadcast.

Officials warned that an injured bear could be particularly territorial if the hunters returned. That leaves Haakenson with quite the decision. He told Outdoor Life he’d like to go back, find the bear, and shoot it, but also wondered how much he wanted to worry his mother and “how angry will this brown bear be when it sees me?” 

As for the memories he lost during the attack, he isn’t particularly asking for them back. “I’m glad I blacked out and don’t remember the bear being on top of me,” he said. 

Considering what filled those missing seconds, some gaps in the memory are probably better left blank. 

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