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GARDEN CITY, Rich County — A Cache Valley snowboarder says he came face-to-face with a mountain lion and ended up in a fight for his life.
A well-known guideline states that skiers and snowboarders are typically much safer inbounds than out. This story is one example of why.
Charlie Duffy started to hike off the beaten path Sunday, just outside of Beaver Mountain Ski Resort.
"A little less than halfway through, I started to see some fresh paw prints," he said. "And that just got me, you know, on edge, aware of my surroundings, just constantly looking around."
That awareness may have saved him. Just minutes later, it happened.
"I looked over my left shoulder and, you know, 5 or 6 feet behind me, about 3 or 4 feet up, I saw a mountain lion," he said.
The lion pounced. Duffy swung at it with his snowboard in self-defense.
"And it kind of got me on the neck when it was pouncing. Just a tiny bit – just grazed it. Nothing piercing the skin," Duffy explained.
The lion also caught his jacket arm. "Ripped it up a good bit," he said.
Duffy said the cat came at him again.
"Just took my board and was just protecting its mouth, just not letting the mouth get to me and just pushing it back," he explained.
Duffy eventually got some distance, ran off and rode his snowboard down the mountain.
He said the cat was about 7 feet long, but it didn't look well.
"You know, you could see its bones," he continued. "It looked very sickly. I got very lucky."
Duff wants people to know one thing. He said things could have turned out very differently if he had not been alone.
"Assume if I was with one or two other people. The cat wouldn't have even tried it," he said.
He advised others to take the right gear and people.
"That's the risks you take when you go out of bounds, is that stuff like that can happen," he said.
