Scars fade; gratitude still strong

Recounting their story and thanking their rescuers, the survivors of a brutal grizzly mauling in Glacier National Park last summer hushed the crowd at the annual ALERT banquet Saturday.

Johan Otter, his wife, Marilyn, and daughter, Jenna, flew into Kalispell for the weekend from their home in Escondido, Calif., to be the guests of honor at the 28th annual banquet, a crucial fundraiser for the air ambulance, held at the Majestic Valley Arena just north of Kalispell.

Speaking to more than 600 people, Johan Otter recalled the morning of Aug. 25, when he and Jenna set out on the Grinnell Glacier Trail in the Many Glacier Valley. They came to a blind turn in the trail, where Jenna was the first to see a grizzly bear with two cubs only six feet away.

"When they say they attack like lightning, they attack like lightning," he said. "You can't imagine the amount of speed these animals have."

The bear ended up driving the Otters off a 30-foot trailside cliff and pursuing them.

"I got down into a bush and covered myself in the fetal position and just waited and the whole time I could hear my dad screaming," Jenna Otter told the audience.

The bear returned to her, biting her in the face and shoulder before leaving.

"There was a minute or two of silence, and then my dad called out to me, and that was the biggest relief," she said.

Hikers on the trail above eventually heard the Otters calling for help, and that triggered an elaborate rescue that took most of the day to complete.

Gary Moses, a veteran Glacier ranger, said he and other rangers arrived at the scene with rescue gear about 3 1/2 hours after the attack, and determined that it was likely a situation that would require ALERT to carry out a "short-haul" rescue, rather than trying to carry the Otters out of the rugged area below the trail.

Flight nurse Travis Wilcut said the helicopter had to be rigged for the short-haul, which involves lifting a victim in a harness tethered to a rope below the helicopter. Flight medic Jerry Anderson was at the end of the short-haul rope with both of the Otters. He and Wilcutt said they had never seen pilot Ken Justus as focused as he was on this mission, which required extremely steady flying to avoid swinging the harness in the rocky terrain.

"Ken is the one who really did this," Anderson said. "I was just kind of the dope on the rope."

Dr. Scott Rundle, who treated Johan Otter in the Kalispell Regional Medical Center emergency room, told the audience that his patient "was basically scalped" by the bear, and he had suffered fractured vertebrae in his neck.

"The initial impact of looking at him was something else," Rundle said, adding that it was obvious that Otter would require extensive plastic surgery, so he was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The scars are fading for Otter, who now has a shiny bald head that with distinctive puncture marks and a patch where skin grafting is apparent. His neck is still stiff, but in January he went back to work at the Scripps Howard Hospital in San Diego, and he is now training to run in a marathon this summer.

"I don't have to fix my hair in the morning anymore," he joked to the crowd. "I don't have to go through all that balding, graying stuff."

Jenna's only visible mark is a slight scar on her right cheek. She is studying fine arts at the University of California at Irvine and is choreographing a dance program that she will perform in as well.

"I just want to say thank you to all the parties involved with this, because our gratitude just can't be expressed in words," Jenna Otter said.

Sitting at the front table with his family, Johan said it's only been in the months after the attack that he's come to realize how elaborate the rescue was.

"The whole thing is surreal because I think we realized how big of an event this was," he said. "You see the enormity of that helicopter rescue alone, it's really a huge deal."

Otter said he has developed a deep interest in bear biology and bear behavior, and that he holds no ill will for the bear that attacked him in defense of its cubs. He said that since recovering, life has been "a rollercoaster of good things."

Marilyn Otter said the entire ordeal has strengthened her family. And in July, she and her husband plan to return to the scene of the attack on Grinnell Glacier trail, partly to satisfy her curiosity about exactly what happened that day.

Also at the banquet, veteran Glacier Park ranger Charlie Logan was given the prestigious Clyde Smith Award, named for one of the leading advocates for an air ambulance to serve Northwest Montana more than 30 years ago.

Logan, who has participated in many rescues in the park, was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident last summer on U.S. 2 near Hungry Horse. He was flown by the ALERT helicopter to medical treatment. Taking the stage to accept the award, Logan said, "I'm doing great now."

Jim Oliverson, the spokesman for Kalispell Regional Medical Center, said the banquet was expected to raise at least $70,000 to support ALERT operations.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.