In June 2005, we had a close encounter with the biggest black bear I have ever seen (approx 800 lbs) on a heli glacier landing adventure near Skagway. With permission, we had walked away from the group to explore another section of the ice field above the glacier.
My DH and I were the last ones on board as the bear approached the pair of choppers. The group didn’t notice the bear, but the other pilot did and ordered everyone to load up.
The bear was continuing to approach our chopper and was only 60 feet away when the pilot fired up the blades. That finally scared him away.
The other pilot radioed our pilot and told him about the approaching bear and that he thought that DH and I were going to end up as bear lunch. We have some great pictures. We were then known on our cruise ship as the people with the bear pictures.
That sounds like quite an adventure. Certainly it's one you'll never forget.
A friend of mine saw multiple grizzlies (close up) within the park about three weeks ago when she vacationed at Glacier.