Helicopter Pilot Spots a Surprise 7,200 Feet Up a Snowy Volcano

Some animal encounters happen on roads, in gardens, or along quiet hiking trails. This one happened in a place so remote that even reaching it by helicopter was difficult: high above Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, near an active volcano, where snow and rock stretch across a landscape that feels almost untouched.

Helicopter pilot Russ Robinson and his partner, Kiersa Koepnick, were flying near Pavlof Volcano when they noticed something unexpected on Pavlof’s Sister, a smaller nearby volcano. At first, it looked like footprints. Then they moved closer and realized the tracks belonged to a lone brown bear resting thousands of feet above sea level.