I recently purchased a pair of Orion coolers for an annual week-long camping trip in the Sierras. This trip is in August and the weather is always HOT, with temperatures around 100 degrees. Every years we are scrambling to replenish our ice in this remote area as our old cooler could not keep up with the hot temps. I was excited to get my Orions and put the ice drama in the past.

As I was loading my new coolers I saw this tag on the inside of the coolers and wondered how “real” this certification was.

Unfortunately it didn’t take long to find out. On our second night in camp I woke up to my wife screaming “BEAR!!!!” By the time I got out of our tent the bear had drug our Orion 85 out from under our table, stood it on end, and rolled it like a giant dice. It didn’t open, and the bear was agitated and not running from our flashlights. The bear then saddled the ice chest and tried to pry the lid open. Nope. The bear moved on after his usual techniques failed. WOW!

The next morning my beautiful new cooler was not looking so new.

However all of our food for the remainder of the week was perfect! And so was our ice!

You could see where the bear had gripped the cooler.

As successful as the cooler was at fending off the bear, I was a little bummed that my brand new cooler had been thrashed. However when I got home and washed it the there was essentially no damage to it except the claw prints. My cooler is still beautiful, but now with massive street cred and a good camp fire story.