Pod Insights Real Survival Stories Battle on Mount Grinnell: Hiker’s Paradise About this episode A proud dad and his daughter set out on a hike to celebrate her graduation from high school. Montana’s Glacier National Park is sublime. But on a remote ledge, everything changes in an instant. After accidentally stumbling on a wild beast determined to protect its young, Johan Otter must do his utmost to buy daughter Jenna enough time to escape…
A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins.
Written by Heléna Lewis | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound Supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Matt Peaty | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley.
For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions
If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 How many discounts does USAA Auto Insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount, safe driver discount, uh, new-vehicle discount, storage discount, legacy discount...
0:09 Speaker 01 How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com/autodisc量 restrictions apply.
0:19 John Hopkins? It's early on August the 25th, 2005.
0:24 John Hopkins? Puffy white clouds dot the blue sky above Glacier National Park in northwest Montana.
0:32 John Hopkins? A light wind blows through the treetops, carrying the scent of pine and resin on the breeze.
0:39 John Hopkins? The verdant slopes are strewn with wildflowers and sunlight glints off the pristine lakes and ancient glaciers which pepper this immense dazzling stretch of wilderness.
0:50 John Hopkins? With more than 700 miles of trails, the park is a hiker's paradise, welcoming millions of people each year, all keen to experience its magnificent scenery and wildlife, which includes a host of bird and insect species.
1:07 John Hopkins? But not all of the creatures here are harmless. Large, hulking mammals like mountain lions, bears, and even elk can pose a threat. Trekkers must remain vigilant.
1:22 John Hopkins? Right now, it's still so early in the morning that the trails are all but deserted.
1:29 John Hopkins? But on the narrow, twisting route cut into the side of Mount Grinnell, scree and stones have been dislodged, and there are scuff marks in the dirt. Patches of nearby brush have been flattened, twigs and branches splintered by some sort of impact. Someone, or something, has been here recently. Near a large boulder jutting out into the trail, a pool of blood seeps into the dust, still wet and glistening in the sunlight.
2:00 John Hopkins? More streaks of scarlet stain the craggy cliff that falls away from the trail towards the surface of Grinnell Lake below.
2:08 John Hopkins? And on a small, jagged ledge overlooking the valley is 43-year-old Johan Otter.
2:16 John Hopkins? His back is pressed against the cold, hard surface of the rock face. Below him is a sheer drop of fifteen hundred feet.
2:25 John Hopkins? His body is bruised and lacerated. His flesh is torn in countless places and his skin is slick with his own blood.
2:34 Speaker 03 You're like, oh my gosh, I have all these things hanging in front of my face. What is that? And my right eye, I can't see out of my right eye. And then I have these strings hanging. I'm like, oh, that must be my scalp. And I'm feeling bone on top of my head. Oh, bone, bone, bone. I'm like, oh, that's not good. And so I'm kind of assessing myself and there's blood everywhere.
2:57 John Hopkins? But incredibly, Johann's physical trauma isn't his biggest concern right now. Nor is the yawning deadly drop stretching out beneath him. His biggest concern is, in fact, on the cliff top above.
3:12 John Hopkins? Suddenly, a deep, low roar echoes around the empty landscape. A hair-raising, animalistic bellow. It's followed by a woman's scream. Then silence.
3:27 John Hopkins? Johann's heart clenches at the sounds. I see fingers of terror skittering across his battered body. Somewhere on the rocks above him is his eighteen-year-old daughter, Jenna. But in his current condition, he can't reach her. And up there with her is the fierce beast responsible for his own injuries. If it gets to Jenna, it could tear her apart. And it seems there is nothing Johann can do.
3:55 Speaker 03 That scream, as a parent, it's the worst noise you can possibly hear.
4:08 John Hopkins? Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives.
4:29 John Hopkins? In this episode, we meet Johan Otter. In 2005, the physiotherapist and his daughter are enjoying an ambitious hike in Glacier National Park to celebrate her graduation from high school. But when they accidentally stumble upon a wild, dangerous beast, determined to protect its young, everything changes in an instant.
4:50 Speaker 03 I remember looking straight in the eyes that had two hazel eyes. And the only thing those eyes were telling me is like, "I'm gonna take you out."
4:59 John Hopkins? Desperate to save his daughter from a hideous death, Johan confronts the animal, hoping he might buy Jenna enough time to escape. Locked in a brutal battle, he and the beast go head to head, each willing to sacrifice their own lives in order to protect their offspring.
5:15 Speaker 03 It just kind of was pulling at me. It was biting at me everywhere. And then it started really going for my head.
5:23 John Hopkins? I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.
5:51 John Hopkins? It's early morning on Thursday, August 25, 2005. In northwest Montana, near the US-Canadian border, the sky above Glacier National Park is pale and streaked with dawn light. The air is still and cool. Morning dew clings to the pine trees around an unremarkable wood-clad motor lodge in the east of the park, near the placid shores of Swift Current Lake. Inside the lodge, people are slowly stirring, stretching limbs stiff from hiking and making their bleary-eyed way to breakfast.
6:29 John Hopkins? But in the car park, forty-three-year-old Johan Otter and his eighteen-year-old daughter Jenna are already heading for their pickup truck. They have an ambitious schedule, and they want to beat the crowds.
6:40 Speaker 03 Our plan for the day was to go hike to Grinnell Glacier for the first half of the day and then go to Iceberg Lake the second half of the day. And anyone who's familiar with Glacier National Park, you know that those are day hikes. So we were planning to do two-day hikes in one day. Crazy.
6:56 John Hopkins? Though Johan wanted to set off at daybreak, his daughter had insisted they keep office hours. After all, the park's fifteen hundred square miles are home to a large number of potentially dangerous animals, including black bears, grizzlies, elk, lynx, and mountain lions. The majority of these creatures are most active in the late evening and early morning, so it's best not to push their luck.
7:23 John Hopkins? After some argument, they reach a compromise. They will set off at 7:30 a.m.
7:31 John Hopkins? For Johan, this is a lion. Back home in Escondido, California, he wakes before 3 a.m. every weekday so he can check the news, run at least five miles, and return home to shower and change before getting to work by 6.
7:47 John Hopkins? Jenna is equally fit, being a keen and talented dancer and as avid a hiker as her father.
7:55 John Hopkins? Outside the motor lodge, Johan loads his backpack into the truck. It contains all the essentials they should need for the hike ahead, including snacks, water, pepper spray, and camera equipment.
8:06 John Hopkins? He and Jenna climb into their vehicle and set off, admiring the landscape as they drive.
8:16 Speaker 03 It had snowed the day before, so there was a lot of water everywhere. But it's really pretty, you know, when you get snow, basically in the summer, and then it clears up the next day. It's pretty awesome.
8:29 John Hopkins? They pull into the car park at Grinnell Glacier Trailhead. There is only one other vehicle there, meaning they will be among the first to walk this popular route today. Clearly, the early start has paid off.
8:43 John Hopkins? Johan swings his rucksack onto his shoulders and locks the truck. Then he and Jenna head into the trees.
8:51 John Hopkins? It isn't long before they're deep in the forest and civilization seems to melt away.
8:57 John Hopkins? Pale sunlight filters down through the pines and aspens which border the trail, making dappled shadows dance across the ground.
9:07 John Hopkins? As they follow the winding path deeper into the forest, they discuss their plans for the rest of their two-week trip.
9:14 John Hopkins? It's been a long time coming. Johan, his wife, and their two daughters first explored this area when the girls were just children, and they were immediately enchanted by the park's landscape and wildlife.
9:28 Speaker 03 For the first time, I saw a grizzly bear right in the distance right there. I'm like, "This is amazing." You could just see all these animals right here, and then there's mountain goats right there, too. That was just enormous. And so was my daughter, and we're both like, "We need to come back here one of these days."
9:44 John Hopkins? A decade on from that family trip, Jenna has graduated high school and is one of the top achievers in her class. In celebration, she and Johan have arranged this two-week hiking trip throughout various national parks within the Rocky Mountains. By the time they get to Glacier, they've already completed several hikes in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, and they're feeling up for a challenge. Their love of hiking is one of the things that binds Johan and Jenna. It's an integral aspect of their relationship. And with Jenna heading to university in September, this may be their last opportunity to make such a trip for a while.
10:21 Speaker 03 Jenna's a typical A student, to the point that I guess she was reading the Theory of Relativity from Einstein, because I had bought that book for her when she was like seven or something like that. I'm like, "You actually read that?" And her teacher made fun of her. It's like, "You're reading the dictionary just to know all the different words." Incredibly bright, also a beautiful dancer. So she was both an artist as well as an intellectual individual. And it's not like she tries to be a standout. She just is. I mean, she's just amazing.
10:53 John Hopkins? Blessed with many gifts, Jenna has also had a charmed childhood, growing up in the family home where Johan breeds exotic birds and grows fruit in their 1.3 acres of arable land.
11:07 John Hopkins? It's a very different upbringing from the one her Dutch father had in Amsterdam.
11:13 John Hopkins? When he was a toddler, Johan's parents were forced to sell everything they owned after discovering their business partner had huge tax debts.
11:23 Speaker 03 We ended up from being pretty well-to-do to dirt poor. And dirt poor living in Amsterdam on the highway, basically. And that's how I grew up. I mean, I remember getting my first new shoes when I was like ten. It was a big deal and, you know, clothes were always hand-me-downs. But if you're a kid, especially if you're a boy, I mean, you're like, you know, you're in dirt all the time anyway. You care less. And so it was kind of an interesting childhood, just roaming the streets of Amsterdam, playing in the water. I can't imagine what kind of chemicals I played with as a kid, right? And so it makes you a bit more resilient.
11:59 John Hopkins? Johan's childhood was tough, and he was quickly forced to learn how to protect himself and his younger brother from bullies.
12:06 Speaker 03 I still have that real sense of fairness needs to happen to everyone. That rougher part as a little kid does prepare you to, yeah, things happen. You get injured sometimes, just, you know, rock it off.
12:19 John Hopkins? But then, things changed. By the time Johan was a teenager, his parents had amassed enough savings to escape the city.
12:28 Speaker 03 Moving into a little village in the middle of Holland, it was completely one-eighty for me. In school, all you wanted to do is basically have friends and survive to the next day. Learning wasn't really the thing. And now I came into an environment where they're incredibly motivating to learn. And so I went from bottom of the class to top of the class within a year. And it kind of set me up for my future to say, hey, I can actually achieve something more than what I thought I could.
12:55 John Hopkins? At seventeen, Johan started training to become a physiotherapist. After four years of studying, he qualified, but struggled to get a job because of high unemployment rates. Searching for work, he emigrated to the United States in his early twenties and instantly fell in love with its wild, primordial landscape. Hiking became a true passion, one he now shares with his daughter.
13:20 Speaker 03 When you come to the US, especially on the western side, it is incredible. It is so beautiful. The Netherlands, I mean, the last true forest was cut down in the 1920s or something like that. So there wasn't that kind of an environment, right? And especially in the US, when you have the environment of basically being close to what it used to be. You got predators, stuff that's dangerous, and it adds a certain element of interest. And you want to see more and more and more of that.
13:55 Speaker 00 How many discounts does USAA Auto Insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount, safe driver discount, uh, new vehicle discount, storage discount, legacy discount.
14:04 Speaker 01 How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com/autodisc量 restrictions apply.
14:09 John Hopkins? This October on the Noiser Podcast Network. Real Dictators Returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History Of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder
14:50 John Hopkins? in the Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.
15:05 John Hopkins? In less than an hour, Johan and Jenna have made it out of the woods.
15:10 John Hopkins? Now, above the tree line, the views are spectacular. To their left, sweeping slopes of rock and greenery fall away into valleys carpeted with trees. To their right, the mountains' jagged walls of brown-gray rock rise into the blue arc of the sky.
15:29 John Hopkins? The air is clean and fresh, lightly tinged with the scent of pine.
15:35 John Hopkins? As Jenna and Johan progress, the sun rises higher, banishing the early morning chill.
15:42 John Hopkins? Johan stops frequently to film the views or take photos. Bounding ahead, his daughter tries to chivvy him along, reminding him that they have another hike to complete this afternoon.
15:55 John Hopkins? Being experienced in the wild, they know to talk loudly, making noise so as to let any large animals know they're coming.
16:04 John Hopkins? But as they progress, the trail becomes narrower, and they have to watch their footing to avoid tumbling down hundreds of feet of rock and brush. It seems unlikely any animal would want to linger in this cramped, confined section of the path. They can let their guard down a little.
16:24 John Hopkins? In the distance, snow-capped mountains and glaciers watch impassively over the landscape. Apart from the odd snippet of conversation, the only noise comes from a gentle breeze and the chime of water trickling into the valley.
16:39 John Hopkins? Soon, the vivid turquoise surface of Grinnell Lake comes into view, and Johan and Jenna fall silent, lost in awe at the breathtaking beauty all around them.
16:52 Speaker 03 That particular part of the trail is probably one of the narrowest parts, with the biggest drop to the left, and you can see Grinnell Glacier Lake. It's a beautiful, a beautiful glacier blue down in the valley.
17:06 John Hopkins? Spotting a golden eagle, Johan takes out his camera, ready to film the bird as it soars, elegant and weightless through the air. Ahead, Jenna is making progress along the narrow, scree-laden trail, determined to complete both hikes before the light fades. In front of her, a large rock juts out into the path.
17:29 Speaker 03 It was a pretty skinny trail. There's a big drop-off on your left-hand side, and there's a big wall of rock on the right-hand side. Rock walls, obviously, they're not polished and neat. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff sticking out of them. And the trail isn't straight. Trail always winds up because it's an easy way to get a trail to go up and mount it. So when we're walking up, you've got this big rock wall on the right, and then there's this rock kind of sticking out onto the trail. And the trail then takes a bend right behind that rock. You can't see behind it.
18:01 John Hopkins? Johan packs away his camera and runs to catch Jenna up, reaching her just before she steps forward to make her way around the large jagged outcropping. Then she stops dead,
18:14 John Hopkins? frozen by something behind the rock out of Johan's view.
18:19 Speaker 03 At that point Jenna stepped back and said something like, "Oh no." And as a dad right behind her, I'm like, "Something's wrong here." You know, you just get this natural instinct of, "I need to step in front of my daughter." Kind of like what you do when your kid's sitting next to you in the car and you have to brake real fast and you kind of reach your arm out. Kind of that same instinct of like, "I need to step in front of my daughters." There's something there. I had no clue what that thing that she was worried about was.
18:45 John Hopkins? Then, everything seems to happen at once. Johan moves in front of his daughter as she turns and runs, stumbling in her haste to get away. The source of her panic quickly becomes clear. On the path ahead of Johan, just a few feet away, two hazel eyes stare out of a mass of muscle and coarse fur. Suddenly the beast growls and runs towards him.
19:11 John Hopkins? Johan and Jenna have walked straight into a grizzly bear.
19:16 Speaker 03 From seeing that animal to impact was point two to point seven of a second. And so it's just like, "There." And I have an animal in my upper thigh.
19:49 John Hopkins? This October on the Noiser Podcast Network. Real Dictators Returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea and a man is struck blind all alone at the very top of the world.
20:20 John Hopkins? In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes short stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.
20:43 John Hopkins? It's summer on the Grinnell Trail in Glacier National Park, Montana.
20:49 John Hopkins? Sunlight sparkles off the turquoise waters of Grinnell Lake and a light breeze moves through the air, making the trees rustle and sway.
20:59 John Hopkins? But not all is peaceful in this wild part of North America.
21:04 John Hopkins? On a cliff edge above the lake, Johan Otter is under attack. A manic rush of claws and fangs and muscle as the hiker does what he can to protect his daughter from the savagery of an angry grizzly. The bear isn't attacking because of hunger or territory. It is something much worse, much more dangerous. This is a mother bear with two small cubs, and she will protect her offspring with everything she has.
21:34 John Hopkins? But Johan hasn't seen the cubs. He hasn't even had a chance to process what's going on. It's all happened so fast.
21:42 Speaker 03 It didn't even register that I was a bear. My whole natural thing from being from Europe came into me and kind of the worst things we have in Middle Europe is badgers, right? I'm like, huh, that's a mean old badger. And time at that point stood still. And then, of course, the realization started setting in, well, the badger isn't that big, it can't reach that high. And you kind of look down and you start to realize, oh, that's not good. And then it attacked again. Bam, back in my thigh again. And at that point, you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, that's a bear?
22:19 John Hopkins? The creature clamps down on Johan, serrating skin and flesh. There's no more time for confusion. He needs to react, fast. Before entering the park, Johan took the precaution to pack bear spray in his rucksack. But it's safely stowed in a side pocket. One he can't reach without taking off the pack. Unworkable right now. Blood is pouring out of the bite wounds in his thigh, and his front is unprotected. If the bear bites at his stomach, she could rupture his vital organs.
22:50 Speaker 03 If it goes anywhere further up my body, it's gonna go into my stomach. I'll be toast.
22:57 John Hopkins? Unable to risk going backwards and leading the bear to Jenna, Johan is trapped between a jagged wall of rock to his right and a steep drop to his left.
23:07 John Hopkins? Before him, the grizzly roars, opening her mouth to reveal rows of fangs. The only option is something drastic. And so he prepares to hurl himself off the ledge.
23:20 Speaker 03 But at this point, you're like, oh no, this is gonna kill me in a moment. So, and this is kind of where my, you know, playing around when my brother in Amsterdam came back. It's like, I can jump off this ledge right here. I can fall in those bushes, you know, about 25, 30 feet down there. No big deal. So I just basically jumped off the trail to say, okay, and to kind of save myself right now, into the bushes.
23:46 John Hopkins? For a second, Johan is weightless as he flings himself over the edge.
23:54 John Hopkins? Then he lands, hard, on his back and his side. The impact jolting through him as rocks and stones dig into his body.
24:04 John Hopkins? He lies there in the bristly bushes, not moving.
24:10 Speaker 03 It's really weird. You go from this really violent thing to nothing. Complete silence. So the juxtaposition of this is bizarre in your mind. And then you're like, well, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait. I'm by myself. This makes no sense. Jenna's still on the trail.
24:33 Speaker 03 I need to bring this bear back to me.
24:36 John Hopkins? Johan looks up, but cannot see his daughter.
24:41 John Hopkins? As it happens, she is not far along the trail, and the bear's sights are now turned onto her.
24:48 John Hopkins? She looks down to see that her father's bear spray has fallen out of his backpack in the chaos. Shaking, she reaches down to quickly grab the small red canister.
25:00 John Hopkins? But she can't undo the safety catch. Shock and fear are making her fingers clumsy. She fumbles with the spray as the grizzly suddenly races straight for her.
25:12 John Hopkins? And, just then, from thirty feet below, Johan yells out to his daughter, telling her to jump off the trail and join him in the bushes. The yell catches the attention of the bear.
25:25 Speaker 03 I see this bear turning its head when I yelled. And, kind of like in those weird sci-fi movies, that something moves from here to there, like, suddenly, right? That's how it felt, like this animal moved like lightning, quite honestly. Just back on top of me.
25:42 John Hopkins? Johan has just enough time to scramble into the fetal position before the bear reaches him. He curls his body around, trying to protect his vital organs, and places his hands over the back of his head. The bear's powerful jaws latch onto his backpack as she begins thrashing him back and forth, driven by a fierce instinct to protect her cubs from this perceived threat.
26:05 John Hopkins? At over six feet tall and weighing more than eighty kilos, Johan is not a small man. But this mother grizzly weighs double that, if not more, and she flings him around like a toy. It's lucky he has his rucksack to protect him.
26:21 Speaker 03 Jenna has no backpack on. If this animal does to her back what it's doing to my backpack right now, she's dead. So at that point, I decided this animal needs to stay with me.
26:33 John Hopkins? Johann rips himself free from the bear's teeth and rolls across the dusty, stone-strewn ground, leaving smears of dark blood in his wake.
26:43 John Hopkins? The beast is back on top of him in a second. Instinctively, his right hand closes around the shaggy, dark fur of the grizzly's throat.
26:53 Speaker 03 I'm like, you know, we're going down the mountain together. And I pulled it down, and together we fell about thirty-five feet. And if you see the pictures of where I fell, it's this rock chute. I mean, a fall like that by itself, it'd kind of kill you, right? And so, for whatever reason, it felt kind of good to fall, not to have something on top of you like that. The moment I was at the bottom of that chute, I'm on my back, and I got a bear in my hands.
27:21 John Hopkins? Loose, boulders, and scree tumble down the slope, before Johann and the bear finally land on a solid platform and come to a stop.
27:31 John Hopkins? In desperation, he reaches his left hand out, scrabbling for a rock, a branch, anything to hit the bear with. His fingers close around a piece of shale, but it crumbles to dust in his hand. He looks up at the dark, looming form of the animal above him. His hold on her fur seems so insignificant in comparison with the grizzly's strength and bulk.
27:55 Speaker 03 It felt like I was pinching it, like I was holding on to it, but it felt like a little pinch, right? You should get this huge animal that's just all muscle, and you're holding on to it with your right hand. Well, that animal wasn't so happy with you at that point, right? Because you just pulled it down. So I'm holding on to it, and I remember looking it straight in the eyes. I had two hazel eyes, right? And the only thing those eyes were telling me is like, "I'm going to take you out." Because you're annoying me right now, basically.
28:25 John Hopkins? Johann quickly lets go of the bear and curls back into the fetal position. Once again, placing his hands over his head.
28:33 Speaker 03 Now I had a really, really angry bear on top of me. And for the next couple of minutes, it just kind of was pulling at me, it was biting at me everywhere. And then it started really going for my head.
28:46 John Hopkins? The bear's claws swipe across his face, gouging his flesh. Warm blood runs down his arms.
28:54 John Hopkins? Johann's grip on reality starts to slip.
28:58 Speaker 03 I remember kind of imagining or looking down at myself that I was the director of a movie, seeing this happening to my stuntman. And oh my gosh, my stuntman's getting hurt, we need to help him. So you go through this whole surreal way of thinking.
29:13 John Hopkins? Suddenly, a sharp crack brings him back into his body, accompanied by a strange, deep pressure somewhere around his skull.
29:22 Speaker 03 Felt a tooth going in on the right hand side, so okay, that's not good. And then I felt a tooth going in on the left hand side, in the bottom of my skull.
29:29 John Hopkins? His head is fully pinned within the animal's powerful jaws. It snaps everything back into full focus.
29:37 Speaker 03 You get back into yourself and you're like, darn, I need to do something. And so at that point, like, okay, I think I've taken this animal down far enough for my daughter. I think she's been able to get away by now. I don't need to think about myself at this point because if I'm dead, I'm not going to be of much more help to her anyway.
29:55 John Hopkins? Surely by now, Jenna has run to a safe distance. Johann braces himself to escape the bear's clutches and roll further down the mountain.
30:07 John Hopkins? But in fact, his daughter isn't yet out of danger.
30:14 John Hopkins? When the animal ran at Jenna as she was wrestling with the bear spray, she fainted and fell off the edge. She awoke mid-fall, just seconds before her lower back and head slammed into the ground on a rocky ledge below the trail. Her fall has brought her straight back into danger. Now, within sight of Johann and the bear, she has managed to scramble under some bushes and curl into a ball as her father's screams boom around the slopes.
30:46 John Hopkins? But Johan doesn't know any of this. He doesn't know how close his daughter is to the animal.
30:52 John Hopkins? With his life hanging by a thread, he has little choice but to try and escape once more. He wrenches his skull free of the bear's jaws and jerks away, then tumbles 25 feet down another rock sheet. The sharp, cragged terrain batters his body as he slides. He careers to a standstill, his back pressed against the cliffside. Caught on a tiny ledge, he's stopped just in time.
31:21 Speaker 03 Looking down, it's like, well, the next fall is going to be death for sure because it was like hundreds of feet, another thousand feet.
31:28 John Hopkins? Turning away from the stomach churning drop below, Johan twists to look back towards the huge bulk of the bear looming over him from the cliffside above. If she decides to come after him, they're likely both fall to their deaths. Johan has had enough.
31:47 Speaker 03 That point, I was getting pissed off. I'm like, you know what? I'm done with this playing dead thing. If you come any closer, I'm going to kick you off the mountain. As if you can, you can't do that, but you have this unreal type of thinking.
32:00 John Hopkins? The bear and the man stare at each other, each assessing the other's next move. The chute Johan threw himself down is steep. There's no easy way for the grizzly to reach him, and with her two young cubs left alone on the trail above, she won't come any further. After a few seconds, she turns and moves away.
32:24 Speaker 03 And that's actually when the worst thing
32:29 Speaker 03 of the attack happened.
32:32 Speaker 03 Sorry.
32:35 Speaker 03 Because at that point, it turned away. But I hadn't realized that Jenna had actually semi-fainted maybe, and she ended up falling. She fell to the same ledge that I had pulled the bear to. So instead of thinking I took the bear away from her, I actually took the bear to her.
32:54 John Hopkins? Hiding under the bush, Jenna freezes as the mother bear nears. The animal has to pass her in order to return to her cubs. The bear's panting grows louder with every step she takes towards Jenna, and her heavy, earthy scent fills the air.
33:11 John Hopkins? When the grizzly gets within touching distance of her, she instinctively puts her hands out to protect herself and push the beast away. The bear lunges, and Jenna screams.
33:24 John Hopkins? The sound shatters across the mountainside. Down on the ledge, Johan's breath catches in his throat.
33:34 Speaker 03 That scream, as a parent, it's the worst noise you can possibly hear.
33:48 John Hopkins? This October, on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world.
34:19 John Hopkins? In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.
34:42 John Hopkins? Trapped on a tiny rocky shelf overlooking the valley, Johan lies there, torn to shreds, blood staining the rough surfaces around him. But his physical pain is nothing compared with the fear that courses through him. Above, his daughter Jenna is directly in the path of the bear, and he is helpless to reach her.
35:06 Speaker 03 It's a tough thing because you're in a position that you thought, you know, I could, I'm saving my daughter here, but she still gets hurt. Right? It's really tough as a parent.
35:17 John Hopkins? Jenna's scream was painful enough, but the silence that follows is almost worse.
35:25 John Hopkins? It's unclear if the bear has left or not, and so Johan doesn't dare call out to his daughter yet, a fear of drawing the animal back towards them.
35:34 John Hopkins? Time drags by.
35:37 John Hopkins? As he waits, he begins to better assess his own injuries.
35:42 Speaker 03 You're like, oh my gosh, I have all these things hanging in front of my face. What is that? My right eye, I can't see out of my right eye.
35:49 John Hopkins? It is swollen shut and caked with dirt and blood. Pprising the eyelids open, he finds he can still make out the turquoise surface of Grinnell Lake in the valley below.
36:02 Speaker 03 I could still see, I'm like, okay, whatever is wrong with this, I'm sure a little surgery can fix that. And then I have these strings hanging, I'm like, oh, that must be my scalp. And I'm feeling bone on top of my head, oh, bone, bone, bone. I'm like, oh, that's not good.
36:17 John Hopkins? As the seconds crawl past, still no sound comes from the trail above. The waiting becomes intolerable.
36:28 John Hopkins? After a couple more minutes, Johan calls out Jenna's name.
36:35 John Hopkins? There is a silence before.
36:41 Speaker 03 She called back dad. So you go from the worst sound in the world to the best sound in the world, but in like two minutes.
36:52 John Hopkins? Like her dad, Jenna has been mauled, but during the attack, a split-second decision to play dead seems to have saved her life.
37:02 John Hopkins? Sensing she was no longer a threat, the bear eventually let her go and returned to her cubs. Since then, she has waited in silence, too terrified to move or speak. Somehow, both Johan and Jenna are still alive, though neither is in good shape.
37:22 Speaker 03 I was worried because of my eye. And so Jenna, how's your eyes? And she's like, "Fine, it's fine." And then she said, "How are you?" I said, "Ah, it got me kinda bad." And that's really all I said. I didn't want to tell her exactly, you know, the stuff that was going on with me. Like, "Yeah, this got me kinda bad." And I said, "How are you?" She said, "I'm fine." I didn't realize that when the bear had bit her, bit her into the shoulder joint, and it ripped open her lip on the right side of her face. She didn't tell me, and I didn't tell her how bad it was.
37:53 John Hopkins? There is no phone signal around here, and they can't be sure how long it will be before someone stumbles upon them.
37:59 John Hopkins? Their only choice is to wait and scream for help, hoping their voices will carry to the trail above.
38:07 John Hopkins? As they start to call out, Johan's attention turns to getting off the precarious ledge and rejoining Jenna. But first, he has to deal with his head injuries.
38:18 Speaker 03 I'd read about a lady in Alaska who had taken her nylon jacket out to protect her head because she didn't want people to see how badly she was injured. I'm like, "Oh, that's a good idea." So I took the nylon jacket out of my backpack, and I put the nylon cap like on top of my skull.
38:33 John Hopkins? With his bloodied scalp now covered, Johan turns stiffly and slowly towards the cliff face.
38:42 John Hopkins? Painstakingly, he begins clambering up the rock chute he tumbled down just minutes earlier.
38:49 Speaker 03 So I climbed up about 20 feet or so, got to the ledge that I had taken the bear down to, and I got a little woozy. I'm like, "Oh, this is not good. I better sit down, better just keep yelling help, and hopefully some people will hear us."
39:07 John Hopkins? For the next forty-five minutes, they call for aid, yelling up into the open air of the wilderness.
39:16 John Hopkins? Each second means more blood loss, more chance of infection.
39:21 John Hopkins? But then, at last, some good news.
39:26 John Hopkins? Jenna has spotted someone. She cries out. They are heard, and help is on its way.
39:34 Speaker 03 I see this man sliding down the mountain, which is pretty amazing what people did, right? I mean, they actually risked their own safety. They're trying to get to us because we're in this perilous place, unfortunately. And his eyes wide open, like I've never seen anything like that before. And I'm like, oh dear, I must look much worse than I think I look, which I did. Wouldn't even recognize myself.
39:57 John Hopkins? Johan's first question is whether Jenna is okay. The man tries to reassure him and promises that more help is on the way. His wife has run to fetch a ranger, but due to their remote location, it's likely to be some time before medical professionals arrive.
40:14 John Hopkins? Soon, other hikers appear on the trail and immediately offer assistance when they discover what's happened.
40:21 John Hopkins? They do what they can, trying to keep Jenna and Johan as warm and comfortable as possible.
40:27 Speaker 03 I was very trusting in everyone around me. And as long as my daughter was okay, my situation wasn't that, you know, who cared? Yeah, but I think that was my attitude in a way.
40:40 John Hopkins? After two hours, park rangers at last arrive and are able to perform some first aid.
40:47 John Hopkins? But Johan's injuries are so extreme, their efforts are largely futile.
40:52 Speaker 03 They barely could get my pulse anymore. I was, I had lost way too much fluid. And then when they put more fluids in me, I started leaking everywhere. I had holes everywhere in my body, basically.
41:06 John Hopkins? One of the junior rangers becomes overwhelmed at the sight, tears forming in his eyes. Johan, for his part, tries to crack some jokes and keep the mood as light as he can.
41:20 John Hopkins? The levity helps the distressed young ranger, but it's a coping mechanism for Johan too.
41:27 Speaker 03 You don't want to get down the spiral of despair, right? You just want to stay hopeful. When you go through terrible situations, there's two ways, right? You can either just be sulking about, or you can try to make light out of it. I love humor. You know, we have to make humor sometimes about the most terrible things that are happening in order to kind of process it in a different way, right?
41:50 John Hopkins? It takes another four hours before a helicopter is finally able to perform a tricky rescue operation and extract Johan and Jenna from the mountainside. Once they arrive in hospital, the true extent of their injuries becomes apparent.
42:06 John Hopkins? Jenna has broken her back in two places after her fall off the mountainside. Her ankle is lacerated, she has a deep bite on her right shoulder, and there is a large gash on her face.
42:19 John Hopkins? As for Johan, the bear's claw fractured his right eye socket and damaged the eye muscle. He has severe wounds across his body, and he's broken multiple bones, including several vertebrae.
42:33 John Hopkins? He has also lost about half of his blood, and his blood pressure has dropped dangerously low.
42:39 John Hopkins? When doctors investigate his head wounds, they find that the bear has torn away between 60 and 80% of his scalp.
42:47 John Hopkins? As it turns out, placing the nylon cap over his head prevented Johan from bleeding out on the mountainside.
42:54 Speaker 03 I didn't realize I was actually saving my life right there, because there was a couple of arteries that were just pumping blood out. And that nylon actually created a mesh that just kind of, you know, basically vacuumed down onto my head to basically stop me bleeding out.
43:12 John Hopkins? Jenna and Johan both endure a long recovery process. Johan especially undergoes a number of complex surgeries to fix his mangled eye and place a skin graft on his scalp. After that, he spends months in a halo, a type of brace used to stabilize the spine.
43:32 John Hopkins? Amazingly though, aside from some visible scarring, both father and daughter survive without any severely life-changing injuries. And despite the trauma, they do their best to resume normal life. Jenna starts university as planned, and Johan is back at work four months after the attack.
43:52 John Hopkins? By 2007, he qualifies for the Boston Marathon... again.
43:59 John Hopkins? Though Johan's physical fitness undoubtedly helped him survive his brutal encounter with the bear, he says it is his support network which really allowed him to regain his life afterwards.
44:11 Speaker 03 Being a marathon runner certainly gave me the endurance. Growing up with a great set of parents and having all the support of my friends, family, and work. You may survive, but do you really thrive and survive? And that only happens when you have all the support in the world around you.
44:32 John Hopkins? As for the bear, park rangers decided her actions were a natural response to wanting to defend her cubs, and it was determined she wouldn't be put down if found.
44:43 John Hopkins? For Johan and Jenna, the road to recovery isn't easy, but in the years following their run-in with the grizzly, they have both returned to the site of the attack and have completed numerous hikes in glacier, though they now always ensure their bear spray is easily accessible.
45:00 John Hopkins? And their relationship has only grown stronger as a result of the attack. Although they will both carry the physical and emotional scars for the rest of their lives, they're able to do so with pride, as symbols of their resilience and their love for each other.
45:16 Speaker 03 You're incredibly appreciative of all the help you got, incredibly appreciative of the fact that you, you know, were as lucky as you were, that your daughter is doing great. It's been an incredible journey ever since, and always incredibly thankful to, right, that you are where you are. You don't think things were granted anymore. Your fear of death has changed. It's not something I'm that afraid of anymore. Do I want to die? Absolutely not. I want to stay alive for as long as possible, but it's a different relationship with life at that point. Ultimately, all that matters is that I'm alive, my daughter's alive, my daughter's thriving, just like I am. And yeah, just incredibly grateful to everything and everyone around us. That's the main thing.
46:06 John Hopkins? In the next episode, we tell a survival story on a truly monumental scale, a twist-filled tale that spans many months and thousands of miles. In 1980, Gordon Brace and his wife Elizabeth are living in Sri Lanka, when one day they meet an eccentric fisherman who invites them on the trip of a lifetime, a crossing of the Indian Ocean aboard a single-engine motorboat.
46:29 John Hopkins? Recognizing an adventure when they see one, the young couple sign up and soon find themselves part of a ragtag crew of amateur sailors. But Gordon and Elizabeth will get more than they bargained for, because what follows is a survival story for the ages, a three-month epic of grit, daring, and peril on the high seas. That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen today without waiting and without ads by joining Noiser Plus. This October on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster.
47:14 John Hopkins? On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes short stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.
Previous Eruption in the Andes: Veil of Ash Next Indian Ocean Castaways: Epic Voyage (Part 1 of 2) Page updated October 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated