Survivor pens book about 2005 brush with death in Glacier Park

Eleven years after his brush with death in Glacier National Park, grizzly mauling victim Johan Otter has turned his harrowing experience and difficult recovery into a book he hopes will provide a message of inspiration to others.

On the morning of Aug. 25, 2005, Johan and his daughter, Jenna, were on their first trip to Glacier and hiking along the Grinnell Glacier Trail. As they neared their destination, they turned a blind corner and came face-to-face with a sow grizzly bear and her two cubs.

The ensuing attack and 30-foot fall left Johan with life-threatening injuries that required an emergency airlift, a half-dozen surgeries including a skin graft on most of his skull, plus months of rehabilitation. Jenna’s wounds, though significant, paled in comparison — the result of Johan’s parental instinct to place himself between his daughter and the massive predator.

While the drama and heroics of the attack make for compelling reading — as evidenced by the dozens of headlines the incident produced — “A Grizzly Tale: A Father and Daughter Survival Story,” self-published by Otter last month, focuses more on the emotional and physical struggles of recovery from a life-changing event.

“Most of the media spend most of the time on the attack part of it. And that really is fascinating, I’m sure, but that is only part of the story,” Otter said. “If I talk about it in my own words, just to normal people, they can see I’m a normal person, not a super-athlete. … You know, we have incredible people inside of us, basically, to deal with something like this.”

The incident has given Otter minor celebrity status. In addition to the book, his story has become known through his motivational speeches and the considerable media attention the attack received, including an episode that aired last year on an ABC reality-based television show.

But Otter said the real story lies in how transformative the near-death experience was for him.

His 143-page book is filled with gratitude for the love and support of his family and co-workers, the heroic response of Glacier Park employees and the ALERT team that airlifted him from the mountainside ledge and the dedicated care he received from all-star medical teams in Kalispell, Seattle and San Diego.

“When you go through something like this, right from the beginning on the mountain, you get fellow hikers, park rangers helping you, incredible care from Kalispell Regional Medical Center, Seattle and Scripps” Memorial Hospital in San Diego, he said. “By nature, I’m a giver, not a taker, so it’s really difficult for me to talk about all these people giving all their help. It’s easy for me to talk about what happened to me.”

Otter, who works as an administrator at Scripps Health in San Diego, said he believes he came out of the experience stronger than before. Likewise, the bond between him and his daughter grew from their shared knowledge that he was ready to sacrifice his life to save hers.

The difficulty communicating his emotional state during and after the attack, however, kept him from writing about it for nearly 10 years.

Otter said one of the most useful tools for processing those emotions was his love of long-distance running. Since before the incident, he’s kept up a daily workout regimen that includes a five- to 22-mile route through the pre-dawn streets of San Diego.

“I think that did help me, because you’re by yourself for hours at a time and you’re alone with your thoughts,” Otter said. “It would let out little memories at a time. I had known I had fallen, but I didn’t know how dangerous the fall was until I’m running and I think, ‘Wow, I fell 30 feet.’”

Years spent slowly coming to grips with his experience are on display throughout “A Grizzly Tale,” in which Otter’s internal monologue sometimes borders on the surreal.

“Strange thoughts swam around in my head: Maybe I was an actor and they were filming a scene for a movie in which my character was being attacked by an animal,” he writes of the attack, seemingly unfolding in slow motion after his fall. “Or maybe I was the stunt double? But don’t they keep the stunt double safe as well?”

The book opens with a short biography, including his upbringing in the Netherlands by “stubborn” Dutch parents (which lends another frequent theme in his recovery) and his journey immigrating to the United States.

It also features a compelling prologue written by his wife, Marilyn, who also served as copy editor prior to publication, along with a brief essay by ALERT helicopter pilot Ken Justus.

On the whole, Otter said his purpose for writing “A Grizzly Tale” was deeper than simply satisfying the morbid curiosities of his readers.

“It’s more like, how do you deal with this as a human? How do you deal with your thoughts?” he said. “If it was just the attack, it would be pretty boring. … Life leads you to certain moments, and you don’t necessarily know how you’re going to respond to those moments. They can be gifts, to learn who we are as people.”

“A GRIZZLY Tale: A Father and Daughter Survival Story” can be purchased online at Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.