Project grizzly

Troy Hurtubise on 18th May 2002, once again made the news with a demonstration of his latest grizzly bear suit ‘Ursus Mark VII’. ‘Project grizzly’ documents his story. Troy Hurtubise’s obsession was given birth to over 10 years ago when he was confronted by a grizzly bear whilst trekking alone in the Canadian wilderness. Under an extraordinary set of circumstances the grizzly spares Troy’s life and so an obsession is born. The task Troy set himself is to build a suit that will withstand an attack from a grizzly bear. The mission is to again confront ‘Old Man’ (Troy’s name for the grizzly) whilst wearing the suit to continue his “close quarter bear research”. After $150,000 has been spent and 6 proto-types later Troy takes us through the joys and tribulations of his experimentation whilst admitting that he suffers from claustrophobia. By the end of the documentary we see Troy in suit being bashed with base-ball bats, lead balls and hit by a 3-tonne truck travelling at 50km/h - 18 times! So will Troy get his sniff of ‘Old Man’ or will the transport of the suit impede the project? Also shown is a reconstructed Ska-Nah-Doht, a traditional Iroquoian village.