Grizzly Charges Mountain Bikers Near Jasper: Brad Paras' 2013 Video

On August 4, 2013, Brad Paras and his cousin Dan were mountain biking on single-track just outside the Jasper townsite in Alberta when a grizzly sow with a cub charged them three times. Paras had a camera running, and his clip became one of the most watched bear-encounter videos of that summer.

What happened on the trail near Jasper

In the description of his video, Grizzly Bear Charge in Jasper, Paras explains that he had stopped on a hilltop to wait for Dan and plan his line down. When his brakes squealed, he heard a growl and saw the bear coming at him. He rode off down the slope and got clear.

Dan, riding behind, was next. The sow stopped at the spot where Paras had been standing, then turned towards Dan. He had time to grab his bear spray and brace himself; the bear pulled up about 10 metres away, just beyond the spray's effective range. Paras worked his way back along the gully to rejoin his cousin. The sow and her cub charged once more, briefly, before leaving the way they had come. After a few minutes the two riders walked out along the trail with their spray ready.

Paras later wrote that he was glad they never had to use the spray on the mother bear. Nobody was hurt, and the bear went back to her cub.

Why a mother grizzly charges

A sow with a cub is the most defensive bear on any trail. Grizzly mothers will drive off much larger male bears to protect their young, and female grizzlies defending cubs account for most serious attacks on people. A charge like the ones on Paras' video is usually a warning: the bear wants the threat gone, and it often stops short, as this one did.

Mountain biking raises the odds of a close meeting. A rider moves quickly and quietly, often downhill and around blind corners, and can arrive at a feeding or resting bear before either side has time to react. In dense forest, as on this trail, sightlines may be only a few metres.

Jasper National Park at a glance

Jasper is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, covering 10,878 square kilometres of Alberta north of Banff. It was set aside as Jasper Forest Park on September 14, 1907, became a national park in 1930, and since 1984 has been part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The park holds about 1,100 kilometres of trails and more than 80 backcountry campgrounds, from the Skyline Trail and Tonquin Valley to Maligne Lake. Many of the mountain-bike trails start close to town, which is exactly where this encounter happened. Elk, moose, mule deer, caribou, black bears and grizzlies all share that country. In July 2024 a wildfire destroyed a significant part of the town of Jasper; most visitor services reopened that autumn.

Bear safety for riders in Jasper

Parks Canada's wildlife safety guidance for Jasper is short and practical:

• Travel in a group and make noise, especially before blind corners and in thick forest.
• Take your headphones off and keep watching the trail ahead.
• Carry bear spray where you can reach it while riding, and know how to use it.
• Stay at least 100 metres from bears and other carnivores.
• If you see wildlife, back away and return the way you came.
• Report aggressive encounters to Parks Canada Dispatch at 780-852-6155.

Paras and his cousin followed the most important of these: they had bear spray, they kept it ready, and they left the area slowly once the bear had gone.

Explore more: a black bear cub with a backyard playset, a bear caught on camera at a water barrel, and Eighteen Cycling Settings: From City Streets to Mountain Trails.

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