Islander still in hospital after Alaska bear attack

A 41-year-old Hawaii woman who was mauled by a brown bear last week while guiding a group of hikers in southeastern Alaska remained hospitalized Monday in Seattle.

Anna Marika Powers, a guide with UnCruise Adventures, received non-life- threatening injuries Thursday during the attack, said Lis Korb, a spokeswoman for a tour wholesaler for small cruise ship expeditions that sold tour packages for UnCruise Adventures, which provided information about the incident. (The tour wholesaler’s owner asked that it not be identified.)

Twenty-two people from the 74-passenger cruise vessel Wilderness Explorer operated by UnCruise were on the hike.

UnCruise could not be reached for comment.

A 2008 Half Moon Bay Review article says Powers’ parents were outdoor photographers. She grew up in Miramar, Calif., and at age 16 moved with her mother to Hawaii, where she finished high school and attended junior college.

Powers received her science degree from the University of Hawaii and is a Hawaii eco-tour operator. In addition to her being a hiking, kayaking and camping guide in Alaska, she’s also been a lei greeter on Maui, according to a bio for Powers on the UnCruise website. She also calls California and Alaska home.

On Friday, Powers was reported in serious condition in intensive care.

Powers and fellow guide Michael Justa, 26, were initially taken to Sitka by helicopter for emergency medical treatment for multiple injuries and severe lacerations, the Coast Guard said. Powers was then transported to Seattle, where she remained Monday at the Harborview Medical Center.

Powers was leading a group of hikers Thursday when they got between a mother bear and her cub on Chichagof Island in the Tongass National Forest roughly 30 miles north of Sitka. Justa held up the rear.

“The female guide was attacked by the bear, and the male guide employed some pepper spray and the bear retreated,” Korb told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The bear clipped Justa as it ran away, causing minor injuries.

No passengers were injured, Korb said.

UnCruise Chief Executive Officer Dan Blanchard told blogger Craig Medred that “everyone is pulling for Powers, whose legs were badly torn up by the bear,” and that “her pack probably saved her some additional injury.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.