Battle on Mount Grinnell: Hiker’s Paradise

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1:27It's early on August the 25th, 2005. Puffy white clouds dot the blue sky above Glacier National Park in northwest Montana. A light wind blows through the treetops, carrying the scent of pine and resin on the breeze. The verdant slopes are strewn with wildflowers, and sunlight glints off the pristine lakes and ancient glaciers, which pepper this immense, dazzling stretch of wilderness. With more than 700 miles of trails, the park is a hiker's paradise, welcoming millions of people each year, all keen to experience its magnificent scenery and wildlife, which includes a host of bird and insect species.

2:15But not all of the creatures here are harmless. Large, hulking mammals like mountain lions, bears, and even elk can pose a threat. Trekkers must remain vigilant.

2:30Right now, it's still so early in the morning that the trails are all but deserted. But on the narrow, twisting route cut into the side of Mount Grinnell, scree and stones have been dislodged, and there are scuff marks in the dirt. Patches of nearby brush have been flattened, twigs and branches splintered by some sort of impact. Someone, or something, has been here recently. Near a large boulder jutting out into the trail, a pool of blood seeps into the dust, still wet and glistening in the sunlight. More streaks of scarlet stain the craggy cliff that falls away from the trail towards the surface of Grinnell Lake below.

3:16And on a small, jagged ledge overlooking the valley is 43-year-old Johan Otter. His back is pressed against the cold hard surface of the rock face. Below him is a sheer drop of 1500 feet. His body is bruised and lacerated. His flesh is torn in countless places and his skin is slick with his own blood. You're like, oh my gosh, I have all these things hanging in front of my face. What is that? And my right eye, I can't see out of my right eye. And then I have these strings hanging and I'm like, oh, that must be my skull. and I'm feeling bone on top of my head, oh bone, bone, bone, I'm like, oh that's not good.

4:00And so I'm kind of assessing myself and there's blood everywhere. But incredibly, Johan's physical trauma isn't his biggest concern right now, nor is the yawning deadly drop stretching out beneath him. His biggest concern is in fact on the clifftop above. Suddenly, a deep, low roar echoes around the empty landscape, a hair-raising, animalistic bellow. It's followed by a woman's scream, then silence. Johann's heart clenches at the sounds, icy fingers of terror skittering across his battered body. Somewhere on the rocks above him is his 18-year-old daughter, Jenna. but in his current condition he can't reach her and up there with her is the fierce beast responsible for his own injuries if it gets to Jenna it could tear her apart and it seems there is nothing Johan can do that scream as a parent it's the worst Doris you can possibly hear

5:17Never wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet Johan Otter. In 2005, the physiotherapist and his daughter are enjoying an ambitious hike in Glacier National Park to celebrate her graduation from high school. But when they accidentally stumble upon a wild, dangerous beast determined to protect its young, everything changes in an instant.

5:58I remember looking straight in the eyes that had two hazel eyes. And the only thing those eyes were telling me is like, I'm going to take you out. Desperate to save his daughter from a hideous death, Johan confronts the animal, hoping he might buy Jenna enough time to escape. Locked in a brutal battle, he and the beast go head to head, each willing to sacrifice their own lives in order to protect their offspring. It just kind of was pulling at me, it was biting at me everywhere, and then it started really going for my head. I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

6:59It's early morning on Thursday, August 25, 2005. In northwest Montana, near the U.S.-Canadian border, the sky above Glacier National Park is pale and streaked with dawn light. The air is still and cool. Morning dew clings to the pine trees around an unremarkable wood-clad motor lodge in the east of the park, near the placid shores of Swift Current Lake. Inside the lodge, people are slowly stirring, stretching limbs stiff from hiking and making their bleary-eyed way to breakfast. But in the car park, 43-year-old Johan Otter and his 18-year-old daughter Jenna are already heading for their pickup truck.

7:44They have an ambitious schedule and they want to beat the crowds. Our plan for the day was to go hike to Grinnell Glacier for the first half of the day and then go to Iceberg Lake the second half of the day. And anyone who's familiar with Glacier National Park, you know that those are day hikes. So we were planning to do two day hikes in one day. crazy. Though Johan wanted to set off at daybreak, his daughter had insisted they keep office hours. After all, the park's 1 ,500 square miles are home to a large number of potentially dangerous animals, including black bears, grizzlies, elk, lynx, and mountain lions.

8:23The majority of these creatures are most active in the late evening and early morning, so it's best not to push their luck. After some argument, they reach a compromise They will set off at 7.30am For Johan, this is a lion Back home in Escondido, California He wakes before 3am every weekday So he can check the news, run at least 5 miles And return home to shower and change Before getting to work by 6 Jenna is equally fit Being a keen and talented dancer and as avid a hiker as her father. Outside the motor lodge, Johan loads his backpack into the truck. It contains all the essentials they should need for the hike ahead, including snacks, water, pepper spray, and camera equipment.

9:14He and Jenna climb into their vehicle and set off, admiring the landscape as they drive.

9:25It had snowed the day before, so there was a lot of water everywhere. But it's really pretty, you know, when you get snow basically in the summer, and then it clears up the next day, it's pretty awesome. They pull into the car park at Grinnell Glacier Trailhead. There is only one other vehicle there, meaning they will be among the first to walk this popular route today. Clearly, the early start has paid off. Johan swings his rucksack onto his shoulders and locks the truck. Then he and Jenna head into the trees. It isn't long before they're deep in the forest, and civilization seems to melt away.

10:05Pale sunlight filters down through the pines and aspens which border the trail, making dappled shadows dance across the ground. As they follow the winding path deeper into the forest, they discuss their plans for the rest of their two-week trip. It's been a long time coming. Johan, his wife and their two daughters first explored this area when the girls were just children and they were immediately enchanted by the park's landscape and wildlife For the first time I saw a grizzly bear right in the distance right there I'm like, this is amazing You could just see all these animals right here and then there's mountain goats right there too I was just enamored and so was my daughter and we both like, we need to come back here one of these days A decade on from that family trip, Jenna has graduated high school and is one of the top achievers in her class.

10:59In celebration, she and Johan have arranged this two-week hiking trip throughout various national parks within the Rocky Mountains. By the time they get to Glacier, they've already completed several hikes in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, and they're feeling up for a challenge. Their love of hiking is one of the things that binds Johan and Jenna. It's an integral aspect of their relationship. And with Jenna heading to university in September, this may be their last opportunity to make such a trip for a while. Jenna is a typical A student to the point that I guess she was reading the theory of relativity from Einstein because I bought that book for her when she was like seven or something like that.

11:39I'm like, you actually read that? And her teacher made fun of her. It's like, you're reading the dictionary just to know all the different words. Incredibly bright, also a beautiful dancer. So she was both an artist as well as an intellectual individual. And it's not like she tries to be a standout. She just is. I mean, she's just amazing. Blessed with many gifts, Jenna has also had a charmed childhood. Growing up in the family home where Johan breeds exotic birds and grows fruit in their 1.3 acres of arable land. It's a very different upbringing from the one her Dutch father had in Amsterdam.

12:21When he was a toddler, Johan's parents were forced to sell everything they owned after discovering their business partner had huge tax debts. We ended up from being pretty well-to-do to dirt poor, and dirt poor living in Amsterdam on the highway basically. And that's how I grew up. I mean, I remember getting my first new shoes when I was like 10. It was a big deal and clothes were always hand-me-downs. But if you're a kid, especially if you're a boy, I mean, you're like, you're in dirt all the time anyway, you care less. And so it was kind of an interesting childhood, just roaming the streets of Amsterdam, playing in the water.

12:59I can't imagine what kind of chemicals I played with as a kid, right? And so it makes you a bit more resilient. Johan's childhood was tough, and he was quickly forced to learn how to protect himself and his younger brother from bullies. I still have that real sense of fairness needs to happen to everyone. That rougher part as a little kid does prepare you that, yeah, things happen, you get injured sometimes just you know walk it off but then things changed by the time johan was a teenager his parents had amassed enough savings to escape the city moving into a little village in the middle of holland it was completely 180 for me in school all you wanted to do is basically have friends and survive to the next day learning wasn't really the thing and now it came into an environment were incredibly, you know, motivating to learn.

13:53And so I went from bottom of the class to top of the class within a year. And it kind of set me up for my future to say, hey, I can actually achieve something more than what I thought I could. At 17, Johan started training to become a physiotherapist. After four years of studying, he qualified, but struggled to get a job because of high unemployment rates. Searching for work, he emigrated to the United States in his early 20s and instantly fell in love with its wild, primordial landscape. Hiking became a true passion, one he now shares with his daughter. When you come to the U.S., especially on the western side, it is incredible.

14:33It is so beautiful. In the Netherlands, I mean, the last true forest was cut down in the 1920s or something like that, so there wasn't that kind of an environment, right? And especially in the U.S., when you have the environment of basically being close to what it used to be. You got predators, stuff that's dangerous, and it adds a certain element of interest. And you want to see more and more and more of that.

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16:59In less than an hour, Johan and Jenna have made it out of the woods. Now, above the tree line, the views are spectacular. To their left, sweeping slopes of rock and greenery fall away into valleys carpeted with trees. To their right, the mountain's jagged walls of brown-gray rock rise into the blue arc of the sky. The air is clean and fresh, lightly tinged with the scent of pine. As Jenna and Johan progress, the sun rises higher, banishing the early morning chill. Johan stops frequently to film the views or take photos. Bounding ahead, his daughter tries to chivvy him along, reminding him that they have another hike to complete this afternoon.

17:48Being experienced in the wild, they know to talk loudly, making noise so as to let any large animals know they're coming. But as they progress, the trail becomes narrower, and they have to watch their footing to avoid tumbling down hundreds of feet of rock and brush. It seems unlikely any animal would want to linger in this cramped, confined section of the path. They can let their guard down a little. In the distance, snow-capped mountains and glaciers watch impassively over the landscape. Apart from the odd snippet of conversation, the only noise comes from a gentle breeze and the chime of water trickling into the valley.

18:33Soon, the vivid turquoise surface of Grinnell Lake comes into view and Johan and Jen are full silent, lost in awe at the breathtaking beauty all around them. That particular part of the trail is probably one of the narrowest parts with the biggest drop to the left and you can see Grinnell Glacier Lake. It's a beautiful, beautiful glacier blue down in the valley. Spotting a golden eagle, Johan takes out his camera, ready to film the bird as it soars, elegant and weightless through the air. Ahead, Jenna is making progress along the narrow, scree-laden trail, determined to complete both hikes before the light fades.

19:18In front of her, a large rock juts out into the path. There's a pretty skinny trail. There's a big drop off on your left hand side. There's a big wall of a rock on the right hand side. Rock walls, obviously, they're not, you know, polished and neat. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff sticking out of them. And the trail isn't straight. The trail always winds up because it's an easy way to get a trail to go up a mountain. So when we're walking up, you got this big rock on the right. And then there's this rock kind of sticking out onto the trail. And the trail then takes a bend right behind that rock.

19:52You can't see behind it. Johan packs away his camera and runs to catch Jenna up, reaching her just before she steps forward to make her way around the large, jagged outcropping. Then she stops dead, frozen by something behind the rock out of Johan's view. At that point, Jenna stepped back and said something like, oh no. And as a dad, right behind her, I'm like, something's wrong here, you know. You just get this natural instinct of, I need to step in front of my daughter. Kind of like what you do when your kid's sitting next to you in the car and you have to brake real fast and you kind of reach your arm out.

20:29Kind of that same instinct of, like, I need to step in front of my daughter. There's something there. I had no clue what that thing that she was worried about was. Then, everything seems to happen at once. Johan moves in front of his daughter as she turns and runs, stumbling in her haste to get away. The source of her panic quickly becomes clear. On the path ahead of Johan, just a few feet away, two hazel eyes stare out of a mass of muscle and coarse fur. Suddenly the beast growls and runs towards him. Johan and Jenna have walked straight into a grizzly bear. From seeing that animal to impact was 0.2 to 0.7 of a second.

21:16And so it's just like, bam, and I have an animal in my upper thigh.

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22:31It's summer on the Grinnell Trail in Glacier National Park, Montana. Sunlight sparkles off the turquoise waters of Grinnell Lake and a light breeze moves through the air, making the trees rustle and sway. But not all is peaceful in this wild part of North America. On a cliff edge above the lake, Johann Otter is under attack. A manic rush of claws and fangs and muscle as the hiker does what he can to protect his daughter from the savagery of an angry grizzly. The bear isn't attacking because of hunger or territory. It is something much worse, much more dangerous. This is a mother bear with two small cubs, and she will protect her offspring with everything she has.

23:23But Johan hasn't seen the cubs. He hasn't even had a chance to process what's going on. It's all happened so fast. It didn't even register that I was a bear. My whole natural thing from being from Europe came into me, and kind of the worst things we have in middle Europe is badgers, right? I'm like, huh, that's a mean old badger. and time at that point stood still. And then, of course, the realizations are sitting, well, a battery isn't that big. It can't reach that high. And you kind of look down and you start to realize, oh, that's not good. And then it attacked again. Bam, back in my thigh again.

24:03And at that point, you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. That's a bear? The creature clamps down on Johan, serrating skin and flesh. There's no more time for confusion. He needs to react fast. Before entering the park, Johan took the precaution to pack bear spray in his rucksack, but it's safely stowed in a side pocket. One he can't reach without taking off the pack. Unworkable right now. Blood is pouring out of the bite wounds in his thigh, and his front is unprotected. If the bear bites at his stomach, she could rupture his vital organs. If it goes anywhere further up my body, it's gonna go into my stomach, I'll be toast.

24:45Unable to risk going backwards and leading the bear to Jenna, Johan is trapped between a jagged wall of rock to his right and a steep drop to his left. Before him, the grizzly roars, opening her mouth to reveal rows of fangs. The only option is something drastic, And so he prepares to hurl himself off the ledge. At this point you're like, oh no, this is going to kill me in a moment. So, and this is kind of where my, you know, playing around with my brother in Amsterdam came back. It's like, I can jump off this ledge right here. I can fall in those bushes, you know, about 25, 30 feet down there.

25:23No big deal. So I just basically jumped off the trail to say, okay, I need to kind of save myself right now into the bushes.

25:35For a second, Johan is weightless as he flings himself over the edge. Then he lands, hard, on his back and his side, the impact jolting through him as rocks and stones dig into his body. He lies there in the bristly bushes, not moving. it's really weird you go from this really violent thing to nothing complete silence so the juxtaposition of this is bizarre in your mind and then you're like well wait wait wait i'm by myself this makes no sense jen is still on the trail i need to bring this beer back to me Johan looks up but cannot see his daughter. As it happens, she is not far along the trail, and the bear's sights are now turned onto her.

26:37She looks down to see that her father's bear spray has fallen out of his backpack in the chaos. Shaking, she reaches down to quickly grab the small red canister. But she can't undo the safety catch. Shock and fear are making her fingers clumsy. She fumbles with the spray as the grizzly suddenly races straight for her. And just then, from 30 feet below, Johan yells out to his daughter, telling her to jump off the trail and join him in the bushes. The yell catches the attention of the bear. I see this bear turning its head when I yelled. And kind of like in those weird sci-fi movies that something moves from here to there, like suddenly, right?