A midnight wake-up call in the Arctic took a wild turn when a man sprinted for his life from a charging polar bear in Svalbard, Norway, and lived to tell the tale. The heart-stopping moment unfolded in Pyramiden, an isolated town in the archipelago, where a guest captured the terrifying encounter on video.
Rebecca Baack, who was staying at a local hotel, said she jolted awake after someone alerted her to a bear roaming nearby. “I was woken up around midnight with someone saying there was a bear,” Baack told Storyful. “A staff member was trying to scare it away when the bear charged him.” Her footage starts with gunfire ringing out and a lone figure bolting across the snow with a massive polar bear hot on his heels.
A Split-Second Decision
In the video, the man grips a rifle, then drops it and runs for his snowmobile. Onlookers inside a nearby building recorded him scrambling onto the machine, firing it up just in time to speed out of danger. As the snowmobile roared away, the polar bear slowed its pursuit and eventually gave up the chase.
“Damn, that guy is brave,” a woman’s voice said in the clip as the scene unfolded.
The incident sparked plenty of debate online after ABC News shared the footage at the end of April. Commenters weighed in on the man’s split-second decision to abandon his rifle in favor of horsepower. One viewer joked about the dramatic getaway, while another pointed out,
“It really looks like that polar bear stopped and looked around to see if there was another snowmobile available.”
Authorities and local tourism officials regularly warn visitors about polar bear encounters in Svalbard, where the massive predators roam freely. Visit Svalbard calls polar bears the “King of the Arctic” and reminds travelers to always have a local guide armed with a firearm when venturing outside settlements. The website states that polar bears can weigh up to 1,763 pounds and often view humans as potential prey.
While the video cuts off shortly after the man’s escape, viewers quickly shared humorous takes on the tense scene.
One commenter quipped that the bear “wasn’t in the mood for fast food.”
While another warned, “That guy is lucky to be alive, the bear almost had him.”
For those considering a trip to the Arctic, officials advise Arctic travelers to come prepared and to never drop their gun.
