A viral video posted on Twitter shows skiers’ and snowboarders’ encounter with a black huge bear on Heavenly Mountain Resort, a ski resort in Lake Tahoe.
Danielle Brill, along with her family, was enjoying a ski and snowboarding session Friday afternoon when the bear made its surprising appearance on the slopes, according to an ABC 7 exclusive. The sight momentarily halted their downhill journey, the video shows. Brill managed to capture the scene on her phone as the bear clambered up a nearby tree, the outlet reported.
“I see the bear in the middle of the run, so I stopped, took my snowboard off, thinking I would want to be able to leave in a hurry,” Brill told ABC 7.
The encounter escalated when a man seemingly moved towards the bear, the outlet reported. “It was adrenaline,” Brill added to ABC 7. “I think he got spooked and started running full force. He just wanted to get out of there and I’m glad I wasn’t in the line of full force running.” (RELATED:Video Shows Man With Paintball Gun Take On Bear Lounging Under House)
𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐚𝐡𝐨𝐞!
A snowboarder named Danielle told me she came across this bear Friday afternoon while on vacation with family at Heavenly.
She stayed away but saw a skier try & approach the bear. The bear then ran trying to get away.
A bear… pic.twitter.com/iwkrOaqIZu
— Dion Lim (@DionLimTV) January 15, 2024
Ann Bryant of the Bear League at Lake Tahoe advised maintaining a distance from bears, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging their space.
“Bears have a boundary they’re comfortable with, when you cross it, 20 feet, sometimes, it’s 50 feet. So when the man was coming up behind him, that was it, he had to get out of there,” Bryant said, according to ABC 7.
Bryant further explained bears instinctively search for escape when feeling cornered or threatened.
“You can’t block him in, and you can’t put pressure on him because they’re gonna get out of there and if you’re in their way, they’ll run over you to escape. It won’t be to harm you, it’s because they’re afraid and they want to get away,” she stated, the outlet reported.
A representative from Heavenly Mountain Resort echoed this sentiment and urged visitors to respect wildlife and maintain a safe distance, ABC 7 reported. The representative reportedly suggested informing U.S. Fish and Wildlife of sightings and contacting emergency responders when necessity requires.