Welcome back to Scary Bear Attacks! Today’s episode takes us to The wilderness just north of Columbia Falls, Montana. The terrain of this area features valleys at around 3500 feet in elevation with nearby hills reaching near the mile high mark of 4500 to 5000 feet. The Trumbull Canyon Road is an excellent jumping off spot for anyone wanting to get into the more remote areas for hunting, hiking or general adventuring. In this area there are nearly uninterrupted forests of pine and fir trees that stretch for miles. Along the creek bottoms willow and alder bushes screen and shelter the whitetail deer, elk and moose that sneak amongst them. The berries offering up their fruit to human and animal visitors include Huckleberry, Thimbleberry, Chokecherry and Gooseberry. Patches of Stinging Nettle, Nodding Onion and Mountain Sorrel decorate the ground with their beautiful flowers and add variety to the visual cornucopia. The dominant predators of the area include cougars, wolves, coyotes and black bears but the topic of our episode today is the powerful brown bears of the area.

On the morning of November 11th, 2018 Anders Broste was teaching a friend, Dan Hansen to hunt elk and deer. The men had pushed their way through a few inches of snow early in the morning when they approached a very thick, tangled stand of brush. The branches of the leafless underbrush tugged at Anders clothes and his rifle as he fought his way through it. His visibility was very limited and he couldn’t do anything about the noise of the bushes rustling against his clothes and other branches as we forced his way through. Hansen was about 150 yards away from him filming as Anders navigated his route.

As he parted the brush with effort, he looked up and noticed a big bear head rising up before him from behind a log. He immediately recognized the dish faced profile of a grizzly bear and he was filled with terror as he realized he had its focused attention. The bear was a mere 15 yards from him and spun quickly to face this surprise interuption to its slumber.

Thirty six year old Anders moved to his home he shared with his wife, Anaka, on Trumbull Canyon Road after the two had wed and he accepted a job at Applied Materials selling specialized bikes around the world. He has always been drawn to the mountains and even rearranged his life so that he could be where he loved to adventure and be active. Anaka was from the area and knew her husband would love doing what he enjoyed there.

Anders loved being outside. From skiing, biking, hiking, rafting, fishing and hunting, he is described as spending more time outside than inside.

As the bear streaked toward him, parting brush and branch as it clearly drove itself toward a confrontation with the hunter, Anders began stumbling backward trying to increase the distance between him and the enraged bear. He struggled to pull his rifle from his shoulder but his efforts were hindered by the interference from the brush. His mind raced for a solution as the reality of the situation ran through his mind. He was in a dangerous situation and could do nothing about it. The only thing he could do was brace for impact and desperately hope the attack would be brief.

As the bear rapidly approached, Anders quickly untangled his rifle and managed to push it between the bear and himself. The rifle barrel grazed the bear's shoulder and did nothing to slow down the bear's advance. He couldn’t click off his safety and didn’t even have time to put his finger in the trigger guard before the bear impacted him as he toppled to his back.

The bear was on top of him before he could process it and put the 1200 pounds of force per square inch bite force to use. It sank its teeth into his right arm and shook its head back and forth forcefully like a dog with a toy. It twisted its head as it shook and Anders heard his arm bones pop under the force of the bear's jaws.