Wyoming Wrestlers Who Fought Grizzly Featured In New Documentary

It’s one thing to come face-to-face with an angry grizzly bear in the wild. Facing one again after already having been mauled before is the ultimate test of facing one’s fears.

That was the experience Wyoming college wrestlers Kendell Cummings, Brady Lowry, August Harrison and Orrin Jackson got earlier this summer when they sought out grizzlies in the Alaska wilderness for a documentary about their famous 2022 encounter.

“It was a good experience, it was a lot of fun,” Cummings told Cowboy State Daily.

How It Happened

It was Oct. 5, 2022, when Cummings saved his college wrestling teammate Lowry from the jaws of an angry grizzly outside Cody while they were out shed hunting. At the time, both were wrestling at Northwest College in Powell.

The bear first attacked Lowry, leaving him with a broken arm. Instead of running, Cummings, an Evanston native, pulled the bear off his teammate, grabbing it by its ear. When the bear then turned its attention on Cummings, he suffered major facial lacerations that are still visible, his scars of selflessness.

Helping the mangled and bloodied wrestlers down the mountain were their teammates Harrison and Jackson, who were a little way behind their buddies.

Now, the Ohio-based media production company Brave Wilderness is shooting a documentary about the wrestlers’ experiences with Brevity Films for the yet-to-be-named documentary.

Brave Wilderness has about 21 million subscribers, and its crew members have done on-air projects with National Geographic and Animal Planet in the past.

For the film, Cummings, Lowry and their two teammates returned to the site of the bear attack on the one-year anniversary last October. They walked through a forensic investigation of exactly what happened on that fateful day and what could have been done differently.

It was important “to ultimately showcase the heroic effort Kendell made to save Brady from the bear and getting attacked in the process,” said Coyote Peterson, a host on the film.

The Last Frontier

In June, Brave Wilderness took the four up to Katmai National Park off the coast of Kodiak Island in Alaska to film and interact with bears for around a week.

Peterson said the purpose of the trip wasn’t simply to reenact the attack, but to improve human-wildlife conflict by educating the public on when and where to go, how to be safe, and what the first lines of defense are against grizzlies. Also, what can be done in the event that an attack happens.

It’s a valuable dynamic to consider when recognizing that grizzly bears are inefficient killers, gnawing on their victims for long periods of time.

“If they’re eating you, they’re eating you while they’re still alive,” Peterson said.

He explained that if Lowry or Cummings had their bear spray in an accessible place during the attack, they could have sprayed the bear and likely deescalated the situation much more quickly.

“To be brutally honest, the boys did a lot of things wrong in that instance,” Peterson said. “They got really lucky, but that situation could have been greatly avoided had they just had bear spray straight up on their person and not in their backpacks.”

But the fact that none of the wrestlers hold any resentment against the bear that attacked them, Peterson said, shows their maturity and sense of humanity.

“They recognize they were there at the wrong place at the wrong time in a bear’s bedroom, for all intents and purposes,” Peterson said. “Them being able to speak on behalf of the bear and showing the forgiveness toward the bear, and it really being their mistake as humans being in the wrong place speaks a big message to the protection of these animals moving forward.”

The Alaska trip also fulfilled a lifelong dream all the wrestlers had to visit the Last Frontier. Brave Wilderness paid all of their expenses for the trip.

“It was unreal. I had never seen mountains like that,” Cummings said.

Although there technically aren’t any grizzlies in Alaska, Peterson said the coastal brown bears that live there are genetically identical to the grizzlies in the Lower 48, besides being a bit larger. Cummings estimated they saw about 20 bears a day.

“They’re like cows out there,” he said. “They just wander around and eat grass.”

Understanding And Healing

Although the documentary is meant to be educational in nature, that doesn’t mean it’s short on thrills and adventure lived through the eyes of the wrestlers who got to see bears in the wild for the first time since the attack.

Cummings was bluff-charged by bears two times on the Alaska trip, an experience he described as “nerve-wracking.”

One time, Cummings said he was so close he could have reached out and touched the bear. The Brave Wilderness crew taught him that if he moved, it would only make it more likely the bear would harm him, so he had to stand his ground, motionless.

“It kind of made me feel alive,” Cummings said.

Peterson explained that this was actually the perfect scenario as it allowed Cummings to face his fears head-on despite it being highly unlikely he was in actual danger because of the size of their group, plenty of bear spray they had on-hand and the safety personnel that were also with them.

Lessons Learned

Cummings wants people to always be prepared with bear spray and other safety precaution measures if they are out in bear country.

While revisiting the site of the attack in the South Fork outside Cody, wildlife naturalist and bear expert Casey Anderson was stunned by the surrounding habitat, rife with more than a handful of grizzlies in close proximity.

Another big factor was the timing of the event, taking place during the height of the pre-hibernation period when bears are building up fat for their long winter’s sleep.

“It was like a bear hotel,” Peterson said of the area around where Lowry and Cummings were. “There were probably 10 grizzly bears living within a couple-hundred-yard radius. They were definitely using this as a very consistent den.”

Cummings said working with Anderson was an incredible experience that taught him a lot about bears.

Although he had already started hunting again, the Alaska trip made Cummings much more comfortable with one of his favorite pastimes. He hopes to guide hunting trips this fall with his newfound knowledge.

Life Goes On

Cummings graduated from Northwest this spring. He hopes to become a real estate agent in the Evanston area.

Lowry is coaching high school wrestling in Idaho.

To reconnect with Lowry, who Cummings said he hadn’t seen in about a year before the trip, meant a lot. The two share a bond that will likely last a lifetime.

“It’s awesome to see him, everytime,” Cummings said.

A trailer for the movie will be released this fall, Peterson said, which will be followed by the film company shopping the movie, which could get split up as a miniseries, to streaming companies. They hope it could start airing by 2025.

“It certainly is a thrilling story, and the boys did such an amazing job on camera for young men that have never been in that situation before, they really brought some powerful stuff to the film,” Peterson said.

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.