Unlike several videos before it, this phone footage from Romania shows a bear barreling down a snowy hill in pursuit of a skier.
“God forbid, don’t look back!” The bone-chilling warnings came from skiers aboard a chairlift at Romania’s Predeal ski resort, who watched in terror as a lone skier tried desperately to evade a bear running just yards behind, according to Ziarul de iasi (ZDI).
And the onlookers managed to catch most of the encounter on video.
“Go faster, go faster! Come on, the bear is chasing you! Go faster!” onlookers shouted, according to ZDI. The skier, who at one point ditched his backpack to temporarily distract the bear, safely made it down without being harmed.
A local official told Romania’s Digi24 news that the young man did the right thing by removing his pack, as it bought a little extra time when the bear stopped to investigate it.
After the incident, police said they’d received three calls from locals warning about sightings of a bear, Digi24 reported. And when authorities investigated the area by ATV, the bear escaped into the woods. Digi24 said if found, officials would try to relocate the bear, a measure they’ve used before.
