A SCREAM IN THE WILD

Alone and pinned under a grizzly, Colin Dowler reached for a pocketknife and struggled for his life

- Omar Mouallem

Ever since he was a kid growing up on Quadra Island (approximately two kms east of Vancouver Island off Canada’s west coast), Colin Dowler pushed himself to do more, go faster and scale bigger heights, despite having a small physique and a nagging congenital knee disease. Jenifer, his wife of 16 years, often found herself telling him to slow down. When he skied, he raced the double-black-diamond runs. When he rode his mountain bike, it was on the bumpiest terrain. If he wasn’t a little scared doing something, he didn’t think he was doing it right.

In July 2019, to celebrate his 45th birthday, he booked offa week from his job as a maintenance manager for the Vancouver Island Health Authority in Campbell River on eastern Vancouver, Island, where he lived with Jenifer and one of their daughters. He planned to spend two days on his own, scouting a route he’d eventually use to climb Mount Doogie Dowler with his older brother, Paul. The peak, standing around 2,000 metres in the Coast Mountains in southwestern British Columbia, was named after Colin’s late grandfather. It had always been a point of pride for their family that Grandpa Doogie was immortalized in nature. But none of the Dowlers had ever climbed to its summit.

Jenifer didn’t like the sound of her husband’s latest plan. She was used to Dowler going on solo adventures, but this time he’d boat to an obscure bay, bike an unpopulated road, hike through grizzly-bear country and camp overnight, alone. There was too much room for disaster.