Update:
Just read this woman was found alive. She walked out to a road. Couldn't relocate the trail after fleeing from the bears, and she spent one night on the mountainside.
No further details about her bear encounter. She was transported to a hospital for injuries, but doesn't say what caused her injuries, or identify the number or type of bears she encountered.
So much better ending here than might'a been...
Last incident in Alaska involving a bear attack victim calling for help, followed by loss of phone communication, was a 15 or 16yr-old boy who'd been participating in a competitive race up and down a mountain about 20mi south of Anchorage. Phone call reported a bear chasing him. He said he was fleeing from it, but the bear maintained pursuit. Phone comm was lost. Rescuers headed up the trail to about where the boy said he was, and found the boy dead a couple hundred yards off the trail, with a black bear feeding on his body. Terrible ending there for all involved. An official shot the bear in the face with a slug, but only wounded that black bear. Over the next several days a number of black bears were shot and killed by helicopter above tree line near the site of the killing. The 3rd or 4th black bear shot from the air was the villian bear, with the slug wound to its jaw. This happened, by the way, in another area closed to the hunting of bears. Helps explain why any bear would hang around with so much human scent in the air from the dozens of other competitors that had run up and down the trail. And then pursue and kill a race competitor. The bear had no fear of people. When they found the bear with the boy at its feet, the bear never fled. No fear of humans. Habituated to the presence of humans due to being reared in an area with mountain trails, which was closed to the hunting of bears for decades.
Organizers of these mountain races have since stepped up vigilance with better communications and additional check points and staffing. Same with the City of Seward Mount Marathon race (after the 55yr-old man disappeared while participating in that race). Mount Marathon in Seward, is also closed to bear hunting, by the way.
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