Alaska professor in intensive care after bear attack

A university educator who was mauled by a bear while teaching a mountaineering course to a group of students in southeast Alaska was in serious condition late Tuesday.

A sow with two cubs attacked Forest Wagner on Mount Emmerich, where he was leading 11 students and two teaching assistants Monday, University of Alaska Southeast spokeswoman Katie Bausler said.

A student hiked down the mountain to get cellphone reception and called for help.

No one else was hurt, and the students were evacuated from the mountain when the bear, who had cubs, was seen again, according to Alaska State Troopers.

A helicopter flew Wagner off the mountain and took him to an Anchorage hospital, where he was admitted in critical condition before his condition was later upgraded. The hospital said Wagner, 35, of Juneau, would not give interviews. 

Wagner has been coordinating and teaching in the university's outdoor studies program since 2006, according to his biography. He teaches rock and ice climbing, backcountry navigation, glacier travel and mountaineering.

His teaching schedule says he planned to leave the mountain by Tuesday. 

The Haines Police Department alerted Alaska State Troopers to the attack Monday.

Students on Tuesday planned to take a ferry back to Juneau, about 140 kilometres south, Bausler said.

Wagner is the second man attacked by a bear in Alaska within days.

A 77-year-old bear hunter is recovering at an Anchorage hospital from injuries he suffered when a grizzly mauled him in interior Alaska on Friday.