Man's fall at Heavenly turns into international bear attack story

A ski trip to South Lake Tahoe by a group of friends from the San Francisco Bay Area turned into a trip to the hospital after one of them fell while skiing on December 29, 2015.

Ski accidents do happens often, but the international attention the victim's accident got from a news source in Ireland gained attention from South Lake Tahoe locals following the photo and story on social media that the injury was from a bear attack.

Both molosyndicate.com of Placerville and Joe Harrington of Joe.ie carried a story that Niall McPolin, from Hilltown, United Kingdom and a student at San Francisco State, was attacked by an "eight-foot bear," on the slopes earned him a trip to Barton Hospital to receive 35 stitches.

The story was also carried by the Belfast Telegram but has since be called a hoax.

"The bear, which Conor [sic] says was over eight feet tall, had been hibernating in the snow and pounced when Niall unwittingly got too close," the story said.

What actually happened according to both McPolin and his friend Connor Grant was they were skiing from the Nevada side of Heavenly Mountain resort to the California side when McPolin fell.

They spent Tuesday evening in the emergency room at Barton Hospital to get the resulting gash stitched up.