Woman Uses Hatchet On Bear Mauling Companion

A young German medical student who is in training in Harborview Medical Center's emergency room might not be in familiar surroundings today had his girlfriend not used a hatchet to fight off a black bear that attacked the pair last weekend during an outing in British Columbia's popular Bowron Lake area.

Matthias Ruppert, 26, of Munich, is in satisfactory condition at Harborview with 300 stitches in his face, scalp, arms and back. He was flown here Saturday from a hospital in Quesnel, B.C., about 325 miles northeast of Vancouver.

Ruppert's girlfriend, Claudia Garschhammer, probably saved his life by attacking the 350-pound black bear with a small hatchet as the bear mauled Ruppert.

"He was attacking Matthias and did not see me coming," Garschhammer said today. "I grabbed the hatchet and struck him once on the neck and he took off, he left. The blow drew blood on the bear's neck," she said.

Garschhammer, who was not injured, helped Ruppert into a nearby cabin.

"But we forgot to put these things (wooden shutters) down that close the windows. After I left, the bear came back and Matthias had to push with the hatchet against the bear so he could close the thing on the window."

Garschammer then furiously paddled about five miles in nearly three hours to reach the end of Bowron Lake, where she knew there was a telephone.

"I was only five meters from there when I saw the motorboat with the rangers. All this time I had been telling myself I should have brought him with me.

"I kept telling myself keep going on, going on," she recounted.

Greg Betz, a spokesman for Bowron Lake provincial park, said it may never be known why the bear attacked Ruppert as he and his friend slept in a tent.

"There are many bears around here, but this is the first time we have had an attack like this," he said.

Ruppert and Garschhammer said they awoke to find the bear clawing its way into the tent.

The bear later was tracked down and destroyed, Betz said.

Told that many people view her as a heroine, Garschhammer said: "I only did what I had to do."