Above The Glacier

In autumn, the grizzly bear ("Ursus arctos") is at its most awe-inspiring: massive, fearsome and beautiful. Despite their fierce reputation, grizzlies are better fishermen than hunters and a large proportion of their diet is berries and vegetation. They take on fat all during the summer months. Most males reach top weights of 500 to 900 pounds although a few grizzlies have weighed up to 1400 pounds. Well-fed from a season of fishing and foraging, the grizzly begins to search for a den in late October and November. This grizzly was standing on the crest of a ridge: the great hump on its shoulder was in the last spray of sunlight, a mirror image of faraway mountains that also held onto the sun's vanishing warmth. Gazing across the riverbed below, the grizzly looked as powerful as the vast landscape around it. As winter approached on the wind, the grizzly stood above the glacier, the dominant life form and watched until he decided it was time to move on.