Home Scandal and Gossip Alaska hiker outlives bears chasing her along trail

Alaska hiker outlives bears chasing her along trail

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Fina Kiefer Palmer Alaska hiker
Fina Kiefer Palmer Alaska hiker survives being charged by bears. Missing hiker found by search teams after solo hike along
Fina Kiefer Palmer Alaska hiker
Fina Kiefer Palmer Alaska hiker survives being charged by bears. Missing hiker found by search teams after solo hike along Pioneer Ridge Trail. Image via social media.

Fina Kiefer Palmer Alaska hiker found alive after reported missing and charged by bears along Pioneer Ridge Trail. Had gone out alone. 

She must have wondered how she made it out alive …

A missing hiker made it out of the woods and flagged down help after being attacked by bears in Alaska, authorities said.

Fina Kiefer, 55, had contacted her husband asking for help early Tuesday after multiple bears charged at her along the Pioneer Ridge Trail near Palmer, state troopers said.

But after that, she stopped to make calls and texts, leading to a search effort, troopers said.

It wasn’t until Wednesday evening that one of the members of the search crew notified troopers that Kiefer had walked out of the woods and flagged him down for help.

Remarkable lady who was able to take care of herself

Stephen Dunphy, the volunteer who saw Kiefer emerge from the woods, said she ‘was standing on the side of the road.’

‘She self-rescued,’ Dunphy told Alaska’s News Source.

Dunphy said that he gave her food from his lunch box and took her to the basecamp, where she was met by emergency personnel.

‘I’m glad that she’s safe, and I’d do it again,’ he said.

Kiefer was then taken to a hospital to be treated for injuries suffered in a fall while descending a mountain, authorities said.

Alaska State Trooper Zac Johnson said Kiefer was hiking alone, had bear spray but no firearm and, although she is described as an active hiker, had never been on the 6-mile trail that leads to Pioneer Peak near Palmer.

Bill Laxson, an Alaska Mountain Rescue Group member involved in the search, said that after the bear encounter, Kiefer couldn’t find her way back to the trail and ‘spent two days wading through brush.’ – Do you suppose…? 

‘I would just have to say that she is a remarkable lady that’s in very good shape and is very capable of taking care of herself,’ Laxson told the Alaska New Source.

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