Teenager shares how he survived Mount Si bear attack

A teenager who was attacked by a bear on Mount Si on Tuesday shared how he made it out alive in an exclusive interview with KIRO 7.

He said he was face-to-face with the bear for more than half an hour.

Nolely Pina told KIRO 7 he was hiking with friends when a black bear attacked him.

“I really don’t even know how I’m back here, to be honest,” he said.

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It was supposed to be a fun day with friends to celebrate the end of the school year. Miles into the wilderness, the outing turned into a fight for survival.

“The first thing I thought of was, like, get big and make loud noises,” he said. ”And it wasn’t working.”

Pina said the bear kept coming toward him and a friend, so they ran and got separated. Pina fell down part of the mountain, rolling through the brush and losing his shoes and pants in the process.

He eventually reached flat ground and saw that the bear had followed him.

“I just started praying,” Pina said. ”Like, ‘Please get me out of here.’”

Pina said the bear scratched him twice on the leg and would not leave for half an hour. He tried everything he could think of, alternating between playing dead, trying to scare the bear, and fighting.

“My heart was just racing so fast, just thinking I was going to die,” he said. ”At one point, I had a stick and tried to hit it, and it bit the stick and grabbed it. I tried to pull it back, and it just yanked it and pulled it off. I was just like, it’s over.”

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Eventually, he tried something else: an astonishingly loud whistle.

That worked and scared the bear off. Pina, battered and bleeding, walked through the woods. He found a hiker, who brought him to rescuers on ATVs. They drove him to an ambulance.

Meanwhile, his friends were also looking for him, and one sprained an ankle during a fall.

“I just want to shout out all my friends and family, the rescue crews are just trying their best to find me,” Pina said.

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, black bear attacks are not common. Crews set out to find the bear after the attack, but a spokesperson told KIRO 7 the search was called off because the terrain was too difficult and the animal had likely moved on.

Pina said there are no hard feelings, and he is glad the bear will survive.

“I have nothing against nature,” he said. ”No animals, nothing. I mean, it just happened.”

Pina told KIRO 7 he and his friends did not antagonize the bear and did not see any cubs, though WDFW said a different group of hikers reported seeing a black bear accompanied by a smaller black bear in the same area around the same time.

The trails at Mount Si will reopen Thursday morning. Pina does not plan to return anytime soon.