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High Arctic Change 09

Hi Mike, Your trip sounds great. My family and I are hiking Alaska glaciers now on vacation. My daughter said, "Curse you global warming, you're making me hike further to see you!" Luckily we came upon Worthington glacier today which is actually sliding downhill, so it was very close to a parking lot!!! When I was in Barrow, we had Inupiaq Eskimo guides that carried the rifles for us to scare off polar bears. Their strategy is to shoot the ice in front of the bear to scare it off if it is coming towards them. One of the researchers I was working with from France talked about working in Alert where they had a dog to scare away the bear. When the dog didn't bark and a bear started heading towards them his colleague scared him off with a shot. He said that when a polar bear has a clean rear end, you know it is hungry, so consider that. Are the researchers in Svalbard all required to carry a rifle or one per group? Are you advised to scare it first and then shoot to kill? Keep safe and warm. Betsy

Sat, 07/25/2009 - 07:38

Mike Rhinard

Hey Betsy!  Are you still traveling in Alaska?  A great time of year to be in Alaska rather than Tucson, I'd imagine.
As for the "bear rifles", we are supposed to carry one per group that is out.  Again, the chances are slim we'll see a pb this time of year, but . . .     While out on hikes around the glaciers we try to keep our group fairly close together and make it a habit to look around and make sure those chunks of ice on the hills around aren't moving. And we don't walk up over a ridge or pile of till alone or without making a bit of noise.
We were instructed to try to make noise first to scare a bear away.  Shoot in the air if other noise didn't work.  Martin, our Norwegian instructor, had a dry sense of humor.  He would tell funny stories mixed in with his instruction in the same tone of voice, with the strong accent.  He said "if you shoot on der ground, it may bounce ovr der bear und hit behind it und zen scare it to you, not avay from you." "Zat vood not be goodt."  (That sounds more like German than Norwegian. I don't know how to type in a Norwegian accent, I guess.) 
Thanks for checking in - even on vacation.  You Rock!