We have been reporting an increasing number of fox related attacks on campsites in the Sierra Nevada for some years. The incidence usually decreases in the middle of winter when the pesky critters drop below the snowline in search of food. This year however they are remaining on the high ground and becoming braver in their approaches. We have just had a report from Martin Kuster who had his mountaineering trip ruined, not only by the poor weather, but also by a series of attacks.
Sierra Nevada fox
_I was cooking in the tent porch at around 8pm when I heard fast-paced scratching on the tent fabric at the bottom of the tent and I started shouting. I was able to look backwards over the side of the tent and saw the fox in the torch light standing there. He was about the size of a Husky.
By the time I had retrieved my shoes from the tent and safely moved the pot with boiling water and the hot stove out of the way, the fox was gone and no tracks to be seen. It turns out that it had ripped a hole into the groundsheet that was about 40 cm long (fortunately the tear is right where groundsheet and inner are joined together so should be easily repairable) and the main bag of food was gone . The whole raid only took about 4 seconds.
I was so annoyed that I decided to finish cooking and eating and then reset camp at a lower altitude. By 10pm I was back in my sleeping bag after having moved all the food into the porch and having left the outer door slightly open (I had planned to do the same at the Siete Lagunas site but obviously never got that far). This was at the location where the summer path crosses the rio culo del perro. At 6:30 am I was awoken by the sound of a plastic carrier bag being, well, carried away. By that time I was not really bothered anymore and snoozed for another 2 hrs.
The weather was slowly turning for the worse with fog moving in from below but there were still patches of blue sky visible. I decided to return to Trevelez because it was pretty clear that I could at most scale Mulhacen before I would need to descend to a lower altitude anyway as camping anywhere near the ski centre was now obviously out of the question.
Before leaving, I followed the clearly visible fox tracks and was able to retrieve most of the contents of the bag. Apparently the fox neither liked spaghetti, tomato puree, parmesan cheese nor soup. I am pretty sure it was a second fox because I later saw tracks leading in and out of the Refugio Carihüela._
What can you do? Best advice is to take a dog. Shop bought fox deterrents may help but the real answer is to take a dog! If you have been affected by fox attacks in the Sierras will you let us know as this is becoming an increasingly serious problem.