A group of students from the University of Alaska Southeast taking a mountaineering class had an intense, firsthand outdoors experience Monday as their professor, 35-year-old Forest Wagner, was attacked and mauled by a bear.
Immediately after the attack, one of the students trekked down the mountain to find cellular reception and call for help.
Wagner, an assistant professor of outdoor studies at the university, was leading 11 students and two teaching assistants through an area between Mount Emmerich and Chilkat River near Haines, on Alaska's panhandle, when the incident happened. The bear that attacked the professor was spotted with her cubs.
According to initial reports filed by the police, Wagner sustained serious injuries to his leg. Local police then coordinated with a helicopter company that helped airlift the injured professor to a medical facility.
The assistant professor was eventually taken to Providence Hospital in Anchorage, where he remains in stable condition. His family has also been contacted.
After the professor was airlifted, the mother bear allegedly came back to the area, prompting a trooper to provide extra security to the remaining students and teaching assistants. It was then that the university chancellor decided to evacuate the entire mountaineering group. In order to get the rest of the group out of the area, another helicopter was called in.
None of the students were injured in the incident.
Though it is indeed unfortunate that Wagner was attacked by a bear during the mountaineering class, University of Alaska Southeast professor Kevin Krein stated that the professor, together with the students, acted in a commendable manner during the situation.
"Forest, the teaching assistants and the students were great in the situation. They applied their medical and wilderness training, worked together and responded effectively. I am very proud of them," he said.
Rick Caulfield, the school's chancellor, agreed with Krein, extending thanks to everyone who took part in the rescue of the professor and the extraction of the remaining students and teaching assistants.
"I commend the students for their quick action in responding to this situation and appreciate the prompt response from Alaska State Troopers, Haines Police, Temsco Helicopters and medical staff in Haines and in Juneau. Our thoughts are with faculty member Forest Wagner as he recovers from this incident, and we are thankful that all involved are safe," he said.
Wagner has been working as an outdoors instructor since 2006, teaching various courses such as outdoor leadership, ice climbing, backcountry navigation, rock climbing, glacier travel, crevasse rescue and mountaineering.
