April 21, 2017 (Atlin, BC) – Alain Masson, a former Olympic skier, had a close encounter with a pack of wolves while skiing alone last Sunday reports CBC. Masson lives in the Yukon, but was skiing on frozen Atlin Lake in northern BC when the incident happened.

“Too close for comfort,” is how Masson describes what happened. He first saw the pack of wolves in the distance through his binoculars, counting a dozen of them. Masson thought he could simply resume his ski, then realized they were running toward him.

The former Olympian knew it was pointless to try and outrun the wolves, so he stood his ground and was soon surrounded by the pack. Despite his fear, Masson tried to remain positive and made noise, waving his ski poles in an effort to make himself look bigger. He told himself that unprovoked wolf attacks on humans are rare.

At the closest point, the wolves were about 50 metres (165 feet) away and eventually, most of them pulled away. Masson cautiously started skiing again, but was still trailed by two large wolves for about 1km.

Masson was skiing an 80km solo loop around Teresa Island where it is common to see moose or caribou on this large lake near Atlin, BC.

Read more here.
Watch interview with Masson here.