The rider who found her and actually alerted the emergency crews happened to hear her cellphone go off when the 911 people called back because the phone had gone dead when she was able, barely, to call for help. The person who found her literally put his own life on the line to stay with her until help arrived. He said he was never so scared because even though it was some light, it was not that light, and with the wind blowing there was no way he could hear a thing and all he knew was this girl had been able to tell him it was a bear that attacked her.

Alaska is one of those places they say: if you go there, you ain’t passin’ through, you’re goin’ there.

Not sure we can use riders-didn’t-know as an excuse. The riders would have had to be pretty ignorant; bears practically staff every AK chamber of commerce. The organizers certainly had no excuse not to warn every contestant: riding this one is risk of life, and we aren’t talking heatstroke.

This is what you call your objective difficulties here. I agree with Amdusias: This is like a horror film where they go: what’s the most likely strategy to get us all picked off by the monster, one by one with no chance of helping each other? GREAT. Let’s do that!

Oh. They all DO do that, don’t they…? And yeah, when I’m watching those, suspending disbelief is the last thing I’m doing.

I still have to say: when you sign up for a ride like this, you have to recognize more risks than improper tire pressure. And I’m not inclined to continue to put all the onus on the organizers, although yeah, I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY DID THIS. I require brains to be attached to all those pumping quads out there.

If we are going to have mass events like this, every participant has to be responsible for his or her participation. Completely.

If that was “satire”, it’s not very funny, either.

More unneeded ridicule for cryptozoologists…

And you’re right, I like you think that people shouldn’t consider the countryside as an extension of the backyard. Last month WIRED magazine mentioned this on their article about the Enviroment, when they promoted urban living as a greener alternative to suburbs encrouching natural habitats—Of course, this was the opinion of Manhattanites, so it’s not difficult to see it may be somewhat biased

red_pill_junkie responds:

“I agree whole-heartedly with HoosieHuneter and Joe Levit. IMO that poor girl should sue the organization that promoted this competition.”

Wait, now. She was not drugged and smuggled to Alaska and strapped to the back of a bike. SHE HAD TO VOLUNTARILY REGISTER TO PARTICIPATE.

If you do anything outdoors in Alaska, you are responsible to know about bears, and to recognize that all your precautions might not be enough.

I’ve railed much, on other forums, about people who use wild country and the places that adjoin it as mass playgrounds. That’s disrespectful. I sure hope an animal that was simply trying to teach us a little respect doesn’t suffer for it.

And actually I wouldn’t be too surprised if most people associated with the event agree, and consider themselves duly chastised. If not, they need to run their next bike race somewhere safe, like Illinois. AFTER checking for bears.