"It's pretty cliffy there," said park spokeswoman Amy Vanderbilt. "I don't know how steep it was. It may have been a cliff, because it took five hours to get them up and out."
According to Vanderbilt, the complicated rescue kept rangers busy much of the day, and by early evening details were still sketchy, as emergency responders had not yet returned to park headquarters with news.
The man and woman, whose names were not available late Thursday, remained conscious throughout the attack and the subsequent rescue, Vanderbilt said, but both required medical airlift to Kalispell Regional Medical Center.
Although the incident occurred at 10 a.m., she said, the second victim was not flown out of the park until late afternoon.
The couple, she said, were walking on their own, well in front of a ranger-led hike, about two miles above Lake Josephine in the Many Glacier area of the park. The encounter was apparently a surprise for all involved, with the hikers and the adult bear unknowingly walking to within 5 feet of each other before realizing it.
"They just looked up and there she was," Vanderbilt said.
Other hikers arrived on the scene within minutes, Vanderbilt said, and raced back down the trail to alert the ranger-naturalist leading the morning hike. The couple attacked were not part of that group.
"We don't really know much about their condition," Vanderbilt said, "other than that they had some bear bites and possibly other trauma from the fall. We just don't know the extent of their injuries yet."
Vanderbilt said she did not know if the couple was carrying bear spray, "but if they were, I don't think they used it. There just wasn't time."
The trail and others in the area were closed Thursday, and rangers continue to investigate the encounter.
The incident marked the first grizzly bear attack in Glacier Park this year. The last attack was in May 2004, when an employee of Glacier Park Inc. was bitten on the foot while jogging on the park's eastern side.
Reach reporter Michael Jamison at 1-800-366-7186 or at mjamison@missoulian.com
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