ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The grizzly bear sank its teeth into Ben Radakovich’s back, at one point lifting him from the ground and shaking him hard as it mauled him on an Alaska trail.
The 30-year-old man recalled that as the enraged bear with a young cub pounced, he had no time to fear death: just a split second to yell and step back.
“I didn’t really think anything,” he said after Sunday’s attack during a solo hike along the Penguin Creek Trail south of Anchorage. “I was just reacting instinctively.”
It was only later that Radakovich contemplated all the what-ifs. What if the grizzly had bitten him a little harder on the neck or gotten an artery or his spinal cord? What if Radakovich wasn’t wearing a backpack that held the hard hiking helmet the bear dug into first?
Full story: Alaska bear mauling victim recounts harrowing ordeal