Errant Skier’s Night Out Ends Happily--Just Bearly

If it weren’t for the bear, Bruce Pennington might still be shivering over a fire near Hell Hole Reservoir.

The 29-year-old Lafayette man was skiing for the first time in years when he went over a little hill at Squaw Valley Sunday. Pennington saw skiers below him and thought the unposted area he was in was open to the public.

He found some ski tracks and followed them, not knowing they were going the wrong way. Placer County sheriff’s Sgt. David Dennis said the skiers Pennington saw probably were cross-country skiers, who can ski uphill. Pennington couldn’t ski uphill on the type of skis he was wearing.

“It was a beautiful, crystal-clear day, and I just followed the tracks,” he recalled. He tried to follow a creek bed, but that also took him the wrong direction. He ended up on the wrong side of the mountain with no way to get back over the top.

“If I had known where I was, I would have been scared to death,” he said. “When it got too dark, I stopped. Since I knew I would be there all night, I built a big bonfire.”

Huddled in his warm clothing, the tree-trimmer settled down for what was to be a 27-degree night.

A rescue party found ski tracks about 1 a.m. Monday. Shortly after 7 a.m., the searchers flushed out a bear. Pennington heard them yelling at the bear and started yelling himself.

He was found and carried out by helicopter a short while later. After being checked at a Truckee hospital, he returned home with his wife, where he declared later: “It wasn’t that big a deal. I’m OK.”