Revised - New details are starting to emerge about a bear attack last Saturday that has left a Haines, Alaska man in the hospital.

A fundraiser has been launched by Graham Craft of Haines, who was one of the participants on a back-country skiing-hiking trip north of the village.

“I am starting this fundraiser for Bart because I unknowingly walked over a bear’s den and he got mauled,” Craft wrote on the Go Fund Me page.

“Fortunately Bart is alive but needed surgery to repair his smashed arm, sew up a bunch of puncture wounds, and reattach his ear.

“He earns a living doing physical labour so will certainly miss work for the foreseeable future.”

The three people who were out hiking/skiing stumbled onto a den where a female brown bear was hibernating, along with an unknown number of cubs, according to Alaska wildlife troopers.

“The group unknowingly happened upon a den containing a brown bear sow and an unknown number of cubs. The sow reportedly exited the den in a defensive manner and attacked one of the members who subsequently rolled down the hill during the attack.

“The sow disengaged from the attack and left the area. Due to the injuries sustained the victim was unable to walk out of the area. The party used an inReach device to notify Troopers of the incident.”

The skiers stumbled across the den at an elevation of about 1,600 feet (488 metres), said Carl Koch, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game management biologist.

“The third guy sees the snow blow open and fur coming at him,” Koch said. “He’s the one that got hurt.”

The group saw more than one bear in the den, which Koch said was believed to be a sow with her cub.

During his roll down the hill, the skier at one point played dead, which is when the bear ran away, Koch said.

The men called for help using a satellite communication device that also provided their GPS location co-ordinates.

The mauling took place near Chilkoot Lake, approximately 16 kilometres northwest of Haines.

A rescue team located the group and the U.S. Coast Guard deployed an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Sitka, which hoisted the victim and transported him for medical treatment.

The other two members of the group were able to self-rescue.

The victim remains in stable condition in Anchorage.

The investigation is continuing. There is no word as to whether the bear will be hunted down.

Koch said it is a common misconception that bears are in full hibernation during the winter.

Bears enter a state called torpor in which they slow down body functions to preserve energy and stay warm through the winter.

Torpor is less intense than hibernation, and Koch said bears can wake up and leave the den before returning to torpor.

Bears can also wake up in response to disturbances, and bear attacks happen during the winter, but are not common, Koch said.

Last Saturday’s bear attack is still under investigation by wildlife biologists and troopers.

– With a file from The Associated Press