Why I choose the bear: Female Guide Edition

We’ve all heard the phrase. It’s a meme, it’s very sad, and it’s based in too much truth: women choosing to deal with a bear instead of dealing with a random man because we feel like bears are the safer bet. Earlier this season I had an unfortunate encounter with an adult human male while working in the field. Here is my story about why I would rather deal with a bear while guiding.

The program I work for occasionally does caving excursions. Before the season starts, we do a guide orientation that points out all the hazards and go through training that covers the hazards. 

Guests wear helmets and headlamps, we make sure the right clothing is worn to stay comfortable in the cool wet caves, and guides are trained in how to spot guests through challenging sections of terrain. In particular, a section of class 4 scrambling where guides may need to offer a hand or a spot as guests climb up a 5’ section of rock. We go over exactly how to stage the group, where the good hand and feet holds are, and have a system for getting guests through this terrain. I have guided this caving excursion 6-10 times and have been in these caves over a dozen times. I consider myself very prepared and experienced guiding these caves.

But none of my experience and training made me ready for what I experienced this summer.

The cave in a lava tube with no side exits, there are areas where the lava tube expands and contracts, sometimes it is 40 feet wide, other times it constricts to a narrow distance maybe 4’ wide. One of the narrowest constrictions is right before the 5’ scramble section. It is not uncommon for bottlenecks of hikers to occur in the constrictions. Often, we will wait for hikers to climb over boulders, and our large group will stand aside to let smaller groups pass. However, on a recent trip to these caves, we had an experience with a hiker that has left me very unsettled.

Our group got to the cave constriction that occurs before the 5’ scramble, and since no smaller parties were in the area to yield to, we set up, with a guide at the top and bottom of the scramble section. I instructed my assistant to be on the top of the boulder, while I stood at the base of the boulder to spot guests as they climbed the boulder. Some guests climb this boulder unassisted, others require a lot of coaching, pretty normal stuff. 

Everything was going great on our hike until a random man showed up and unannounced, began climbing over my guest. I instructed the man that it wasn’t safe for him to climb over my guest and asked him to wait until the guest  got on top of the boulder. The guest I was spotting was unsure on their feet, and needed a lot of coaching. They were holding onto my assistant’s arm while my hands were stabilizing one of their feet. Instead of waiting for my guest to climb up the boulder, this random man reached OVER me and grabbed my guest’s other foot. I immediately spoke up and loudly told the man he could not touch my guest and needed to step back. I was trapped in a dark corner with no escape while some random man was touching my guest. The man did not stop touching my guest. I spoke up a second time, even louder, that the man could not touch my guest and needed to get away. The man was still touching my guest, still pinning me in a corner, I was trapped. Fear flared up in my body, coupled with anger, how was this man so entitled?! Why was he choosing to touch someone without consent and why was he choosing to ignore my clear, loud directions to get away? I started wondering what I would have to do to get the man to stop touching my guest, would I have to fight him? My assistant (who is a guy) spoke up and also told the man he couldn’t touch the guest. Finally, after THREE verbal reprimands from the two of us, the random man stepped away. I could breathe again (I didn’t realize I was holding my breath), I wasn’t trapped anymore, and the first thing I did was check in with my guest to make sure they were okay. Thankfully, my guest was okay and was able to climb up the boulder. I am so glad they seemed oblivious to what was going on.

I kept myself together and we got the rest of our group over the boulder and through the caves. When we climbed the ladder and felt sunlight again, I allowed myself a tiny moment to collapse internally while staying cool externally. I checked in with my guests and everyone seemed content, unaware of how close we were to a potential Bad Situation.

I was trapped in a dark cave, literally trapped in a corner, while some random large man reached over me and blocked my escape, he touched my guest without consent and refused to stop touching them until two different adults yelled at him to stop. I felt fear for myself in a very personal way that I have never felt guiding. I am not looking forward to guiding those caves again.

Thankfully, the guest he touched was oblivious to this, but I still had to file an incident report. When I debriefed with a supervisor, they told me they had never heard of such a thing happening in the many years this program has run trips.

I honestly don’t know what I could have done differently to avoid this situation. I wonder if that random man would have blocked me in a corner if I was also a man. Would he have listened the first or second time if I was a man? Why did it take three verbal commands from two different adults for him to stop touching our guest?

Bears you can plan for. You can provide instruction on food storage, you can speak with the rangers about local bear activity, you can manage the risk of bears in the field. Even with years of experience guiding and many trips to an area, you cannot plan for the activity of humans. 

It is difficult to make sense of that as a guide, how do I manage the risk of other people in the wilderness now? Now that I’ve felt that unique kind of helplessness, how do I move forward? 

I guess just one step at a time.