A Utah snowboarder had to take matters into his own hands when a mountain lion pounced at him while he was hitting the slopes.
Charlie Duffy originally shared the daring tale on Instagram, detailing how he fought off the ferocious feline at a Beaver Mountain ski resort on Sunday.
Alongside photos of his torn jacket, the snowboarder described the encounter as a “near death experience.”
“I made it to the car track that takes you back to the little beaver lift and was walking when I started to see paw prints in the snow. I was alone and it recently snowed so I was very on edge. I was constantly checking all around,” Duffy wrote. “There it was!”
“I looked over my left shoulder and saw a mountain lion up to my left getting ready to pounce,” he recounted. “My fight response instantly kicked in and I grabbed my board in my right hand and swung with full force at the jumping mountain lion.”
The wild cat grazed the man’s neck with its claws before it got knocked to the ground by the snowboard, Duffy said.
However, the lion got back up and continued the attack.
“At this point I could tell that the cat was starving to death and injured from the blow,” Duffy explained. “I kept pushing it back and it eventually ran off very disoriented.”
“I am lucky to be here today and to only receive a couple of small scratches from the cat,” he added.
After sharing his close call on social media, snowboarding brands stepped in to replace and repair the man’s damaged gear.
“Insane! We gotta send you a new board!!! Glad you are okay,” Nitro Snowboards commented.
“INSANE. We’re gonna get that repaired for you,” wrote 686 Technical Apparel.
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