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Bear near Chapel Pond Slab
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Last year a mother bear and two cubs often pestered climbers at the Beer Walls near Chapel Pond in the Adirondacks. One of the cubs appears to be back. Guide Will Roth advises climbers not to leave packs at the base of climbs. Read more here. |
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This bear is the offspring of a bear (who I nicknamed Mary the Marauder) that was extremely intelligent and raised the cub with strategy of how to intimidate hikers and climbers into relinquishing food. It appears the cub has picked up its mother's tactics... Don't bring food with you, they have powerful sniffers and they'll be relentless even if it is in a canister. Hopefully a wet summer can give the bears in the region enough natural food. There are something like 6000 or 8000 in the park I believe? |
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"Incidentally, he estimates the bear was climbing slab that would be rated 5.3 or so on the Yosemite Decimal System scale of difficulty. That’s easy for today’s climbers, but it’s probably..." even easier when covered in pink sidewalk chalk. |
Nolan Huther wrote: Wow. That would be a bunch. Not sure if I buy those numbers, but clearly there are getting to be a lot. They (the problem ones anyway) used to be pretty concentrated around Marcy Dam, but there are more and more issues where there had never been a problem before .The wife and I went in to do the Ring slide on Dix a couple of weeks ago and ran into some hikers who had lost a couple of packs the night before at the Bouquet lean to, after the Mountaineer had told them they wouldn't need a cannister in the Dix area. Oops. After seeing how many people were camped at the Sewards on memorial day weekend, it's just a matter of time until the bears hit there, too. Personally, since I've had several run ins over the years, (the first in the Shenandoah 40 years ago when I did the AT. Yikes) I'm all for doing whatever it takes to remind them that we, not they, are the top of the food chain. I'm sure that will offend some snowflakes, but, who cares. |
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Myself and my partner made the acquaintance of a small bear ( we thought it was a yearling) at the base of the lower beer walls last week. It showed climbing ability (1st 20 feet of the Redrum corner to get to a pack) was very persistent and showed no fear of us. When we returned to the base the bear was climbing up from another direction in an attempt to get at the packs. When we moved it followed, closely at times. We couldn't get rid of it ,so it got rid of us, we left. |
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Also do not leave food visible in your car and keep your car doors locked and your windows rolled up. Here in Colorado the black bears have learned to open unlocked car doors and use their claws to pull out windows that are cracked open. They have even learned how to open bathroom doors to rummage the trash bins at rest stops. |
Jim Corbett wrote: Correction, 6000-8000 in NY. About 2/3 of them estimatedin the Adirondacks, the rest a distribution throughout the Catskills, Gunks and Allegheny |
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It appears that the juvenile bear I saw was not the remaining cub from last summers encounters. The remaining cub from last summers encounters has yellow tags on its ears from the DEC. The bear I saw did not have tags. There are apparently 2 other bears around the same age as the tagged bear currently also active in the Chapel Pass area. So 3 total bears are actively seeking out food from humans around Chapel Pond. If you are in the area and see people who are unaware of the current bear situation, PLEASE let them know whats going on. |
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This just in from the DEC: “Please contact NYSDEC at 518-897-1297 to report bear encounters. When you report, they will need your name, phone number, location of the incident, and info about the encounter. If the bear had ear tags, please let them know what colors and on which sides (ex. Right Red, Left Blue).” This reporting number is for the Ray Brook Wildlife Office and has been around for awhile. It just hasn't really been used by the climbing community. |
