Ski hikers have encountered two brown bears in deep snow. © G. Lacz/imago/Symbolbild
Spectacular encounter for two ski hikers in the north of Italy: they were surprised by two bears at an altitude of 3000 meters on the Presena glacier.
Trento – The Presena Glacier on Trentino's border with Lombardy is a popular ski resort in the Adamello-Presanella Alps in northern Italy. The glacier at an altitude of 3000 meters still offers a certain snow guarantee despite climate change. However, the official ski season is over this year, and the lifts have not been running for weeks.
Deep snow instead of flooding in Italy's Alps – and in the middle of it all, a bear encounter
But while it rained endlessly in the rest of Italy, a lot of snow fell on the glaciers in the Brenta-Adamello National Park and on the Gran Paradiso at an altitude of 3000 meters - fantastic conditions for ski hikers. Two Italians seized the opportunity and experienced an incredible surprise on Monday 22 May.
A screenshot from the video showing the spectacular encounter: The bears near the ski hiker. © www.ildolomiti.it/
The two alpinists had set off at 6 a.m. from the Tonale Pass in the direction of Cima Presena (3608 meters). One of the two hadclimbed to the summit at the Maroccaro Pass not far from the closed Panorama 3000 ski hut. When he turned around, he spotted the two bears in deep snow crossing the path of the two alpinists. The northern Italian portal ildolomiti.it reports on the encounter, which was also recorded in a video. Accordingly, it is probably a mother and her cub.
Bears walked past the alpinists from Italy just 15 meters away
"My friend Stefano was a few hundred meters ahead of me, he was already close to the top," Massimiliano Milan, one of the two ski hikers, explains to the Corriere de la Sera. "I, on the other hand, was just about to climb up the slope towards the Panorama 3000 refuge." Then the two bears appeared in front of him, about 15 meters away. The animals were apparently frightened when they noticed the people. "We looked at each other, then everyone went their own way: one of them went down towards Mandrone, the other towards the cable car," Milan continues. "I would say that everything went very smoothly."
Bears almost became extinct in Italy's north
In Lombardy, bears are not yet as widespread as in Trentino. After the bear population there had shrunk to three animals in 1997 and was threatened with extinction, ten bears captured in Slovenia were released into the Adamello-Brenta National Park between 1999 and 2002 as part of the "Life Ursus" reintroduction project.
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The project was more successful than hoped: the number of animals in Trentino is now estimated at 150, causing conflicts with humans. The sad climax so far: the death of a jogger by a bear in April of this year. In Lombardy, the first bear first reappeared in 2010. It is possible that the two brown bears were on their way to emigrate from Trentino via the Presena Glacier to Lombardy. Near the Bavarian border, however, a bear was run over by a train.