He rode his mother's back as a cub. Now Backpack is Fat Bear Week champion

Bear 89 — known as Backpack since his cub days, when an injured paw meant riding on his mother Holly as she waded the Brooks River — has won Fat Bear Week 2026 at Alaska's Katmai National Park. He took the final against Bear 910 by 103,334 votes to 98,253, in a contest that drew millions of votes worldwide. There is a family pattern here: Holly herself won the title in 2019. The annual celebration marks the bears fattening on salmon for winter — fat that is, quite literally, survival.