This is one of those "Ah Sh*t!" moments.

WOW! What a sight! Is that a Brown Bear? I didn't know we had those here. Gorgeous!

Now I'm no bear expert, but Blacks come in black, brown, cinnamon, and blonde... That one sure looks brown, tho... and hungry! :)

Great Shot! That Bear looks disturbed and pissed off..

He was pissed because he could not climb the 5.5 up to my pack. Thus, he decided to wait at the bottom for his meal to come to him. At one point he actually tried to climb the rock and get us. We were about 50' up (guess) about to rappel from a bollard looking rock horn just right of the Nose start. After a while of shooting pics and teasing him with talk of pic-a-nic baskets, I banged around some hexes and he sauntered off up the hill and out of sight. Fun stuff.

Awesome shot! What a cool story to go with it. I love bears. That would be wild to have one at the base of a climb. A friend I know was out scouting for caves got chased up a tree. The bear climbed the tree and bit him in the ass one time. He had to go get stitches after that. Your lucky you were on your route at the time, and also had your pack up higher than where he could get to it.

Seeing this bear at the base of the climb would make me want to head back up....

Now, what was that thread about packing heat?? That would be one time I might feel a little more comfortable with a 40 or 45 handy, just in case... :-)