Bears? In the winter? Yep, even in the Winter, the Glacier Institute staff is ALWAY carrying bear spray! Garrett explains why bear safety doesn’t hibernate. Important for your snowshoeing, skiing, and other winter sports friends! Especially if you live in grizzly bear territory, like we do here in Glacier National Park.
People are always questioning us: Why do we always carry bear spray even during our winter snowshoe courses? Yeah, a lot of folks don’t know that bears are not true hibernators. So, although they do lower their respiratory rate, they lower their metabolic rate, they enter that, kind of, winter torpor… They keep their core temp really, really high. And so, they can go from being asleep to being active within just a few seconds of response time. So we always carry bear spray, even in the winter, because we can always encounter a bear.