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- Fina Kiefer, 55, called her husband after a pack of bears charged her on an Alaskan hiking trail.
- She said her bear spray stopped the animals. But she stopped responding to her husband's messages, so he filed a missing person report.
- A day later, state troopers and volunteers located Kiefer a mile from the trail. She was alive but injured.
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A woman hiking Alaska's Pioneer Ridge Trail went missing but was later found injured after alerting her husband that a group of bears charged at her.
55-year-old Fina Kiefer's husband reported her missing to the Alaska Department of Public Safety at 1 a.m. on Tuesday.
Before he alerted officials, Kiefer was able to contact him, saying multiple bears charged her and that she deterred them with bear spray she had. The 12-mile path she was hiking had a "hard" difficulty rating, and local officials mention the potential for bear and moose sightings on the area's website, CNN reported.
But after that initial call to her husband, Kiefer stopped responding, which prompted him to send a missing person alert.
State troopers headed out to the trail in search of Kiefer, while the Alaska Air National Guard searched for Kiefer from the sky. When they found no traces of the woman, volunteers from the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group, Anchorage Nordic Ski Patrol, and Alaska Solstice Search Dogs joined in to help, according to the public safety report.
After briefly halting the mission when the weather became inclement Wednesday afternoon, a volunteer found Kiefer walking out of the woods. She was a mile from the trailhead.
Following the rescue, Kiefer was taken to a local hospital to receive treatment for undisclosed injuries, as per the report.