Jamie Stein didn’t realize he was skiing right between the family

A Vancouver man got quite scare on Sunday as he skied between a mother bear and her cubs in Whistler.

“I was just skiing alone enjoying a nice sunny afternoon… I saw something on the run and thought ‘Oh, there’s a bear there,’” Jamie Stein told Black Press Media Monday.

Stein was on his last run of the day, heading toward the Crystal Ridge Express chairlift, when he saw the animal.

He stopped, figuring he’d give the bear a chance to cross the run undisturbed and maybe get a video clip for his kids.

“But when I started to ski by, I realized it had a really tiny cub with i, so I just tried to stay to one side,” he said.

“The bear kind of took three or four steps towards me and I thought, ‘I don’t blame it, I would too.’”

But when Stein stopped downhill of the bear, he realized why it had started to advance.

“There was a second cub on the other side of the run, so I’d actually skied between the mama bear and the other cub.”

As a frequent Whistler hiker who’s seen plenty of black bears in the area, Stein said he wasn’t too too worried – only a bit concerned he might fall right in front of the hungry mama bear.

“I was just like, ‘Keep your skis straight, just let it rip,’” and took off.

@katslepian

katya.slepian@bpdigital.ca

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