Juneau, Alaska: A teacher has been hospitalised after he was mauled by a bear on Tuesday during a mountaineering class in the Alaska Panhandle.
A University of Alaska Southeast spokeswoman says Forest Wagner, 35, was with a group of 11 students and two teaching assistants on Mount Emmerich near Haines, Alaska, on Monday when he was attacked.
No students were hurt.
A student hiked down the mountain to get cellphone reception and call for help.
The professor was in serious condition, according to state troopers. The university says Wagner was taken to Providence Hospital in Anchorage.
Wagner has been coordinating and teaching in the outdoor studies programme at the university since 2006, according to his biography.
He teaches rock and ice climbing, backcountry navigation, glacier travel and mountaineering.
Students disembarking from the ferry Tuesday evening said they were tired, not yet ready to talk and headed to the nearby University of Alaska Southeast campus.
Forest Wagner, 35, was teaching a mountaineering class with 11 students and two teaching assistants when he was attacked by a brown bear with sows.
The US media reported that an initial Alaska State Trooper said Wagner suffered extensive leg injuries.
Troopers contracted with a Juneau-based helicopter company to airlift Wagner from the mountain to an Anchorage hospital, where his condition was later upgraded to serious from critical.
A University of Alaska Southeast spokeswoman says it was a brown bear that mauled Wagner a mountain near Haines, Alaska.
Spokeswoman Katie Bausler Wagner was with a group of students and teaching assistants running a mountaineering class on Mount Emmerich on Monday when he tangled with a brown bear sow.
The students were evacuated from the mountain when the bear, who had cubs, was seen again, according to Alaska State Troopers.
Troopers reported that a student hiked into cellphone range to report the attack. They rescued the outdoor education professor from the mountain via helicopter.
Wagner was flown to the intensive care unit at an Anchorage hospital.
