Tahoe skiers dodge galloping bear in viral video

It’s no secret that Lake Tahoe and all of the northern Sierra Nevada is bear country, but most people probably assume that bears hibernate as soon as winter begins. Most bears go into hibernation around late November or early December, depending on the temperature, to conserve calories when food is scarce.

However, in Lake Tahoe, some have become habituated to eating human food and garbage. That means they don’t need to hibernate. 

And as a Lake Tahoe skier learned while visiting Heavenly Mountain Resort on the south side of the lake, at least one bear is still awake and active. On Dec. 10, TikTok user Tao7570 posted a 20-second clip shot at the South Lake Tahoe resort. While it may appear at first that the bear is charging the downhill skiers, it’s more likely that the bear was trying to quickly cross the slope to get away from the speedy skiers. 

According to Bear League Executive Director Ann Bryant, it could be that this bear hadn’t yet hibernated, or that it woke up. “It’s happened several times before,” she told SFGATE via email. “The bears often find dens up on the ski runs in the wooded areas and can be awakened when skiers are close by.”

According to Heavenly Mountain Resort, wildlife sightings aren’t uncommon, especially because the resort operates on national forest lands. It has protocols in place for when animals are spotted, ensuring ski patrol and mountain safety teams are notified, said Heavenly spokesperson Cole Zimmerman, though he says the animals usually move on fairly quickly once spotted.

“In this case, it appears this bear was just looking to find some fresh tracks out on the mountain like the rest of us,” Zimmerman said. 

While the idea of seeing a bear while skiing as it sprints at full speed may seem scary, Tahoe’s bears tend to be fairly nonchalant toward humans. Bear attacks in Lake Tahoe are very rare. In 2021, a homeowner left fruit on her kitchen counter and the door of her wooded cabin unlocked, and was injured by a spooked bear when she came up behind it in the dark. However, dozens of bears are killed every year by humans, including bears who get hit by cars and a bear that was shot multiple times by a tourist as it tried to escape a home it had entered in search of food. 

While bear sightings at ski resorts are rare, they’re not unheard of, given Tahoe’s population of about 300 to 400 black bears (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms). There are no grizzly bears in California or Nevada. A bear was rescued from Heavenly and monitored for minor injuries by Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care in 2014, and a bear dubbed “Hank the Tank” was blamed (but ultimately acquitted) for more than 150 break-ins in neighborhoods around Heavenly Resort and South Lake Tahoe between 2022 and 2023.