oel Sartore was too close. By the time he realized this, it was too late. A mother grizzly bear stared at Sartore. She lowered her head. Without a sound, she charged toward him.


J


Her sharp claws dug deep into the ground. She leaped forward. “It looked like she’d been shot out of a cannon


toward me,” Sartore says. The bear was uphill. He was downhill. The cubs were in between them. The mother bear closed the gap in three leaps. “There’s no outrunning a bear,” Sartore says. “Nor should you try to.” He


didn’t move. He was terrified. “Running never occurred to me. I didn’t even realize I had legs,” he says.


The bear stopped in front of him. “I just stood there and lowered my eyes,” he says. “I said, ‘I’m sorry’ a couple of times and backed down the trail.” The mother bear saw Sartore moving away. She knew he would not harm her cubs. She went back to them, leaving Sartore behind. For Sartore, it was just another close call.


grizzly bear


4 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER


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