Skier's accident highlights danger of tree wells
- Details
- Created on Monday, 03 January 2011 22:38
- Written by Dena Rosenberry
A 16-year-old exchange student from Germany was in critical condition Sunday after being found in a tree well near the summit of Whitefish Mountain Resort ski area in Montana.
We wrote about the danger of tree wells about a year ago in Out There.
They're a deceptive part of the slopes that claim a life in Colorado nearly every year: deep, soft snow that collects under pine trees and can pull you down like quicksand and suffocate you.
It happens in minutes.
To minimize danger, experts advise:
• Be extra cautious in the trees during or immediately after heavy snowstorms.
• Ski with a buddy, and keep him or her in earshot and in view.
• If you are worried a partner hasn't caught up to you, walk back up the hill to look for him.
• If you find your partner buried, dig out his head first, and make sure he is breathing and doesn’t have snow in his mouth.
• If you find yourself falling forward into a well, grab the tree or a branch and do whatever you can to avoid landing face-down with your legs in the air.
To read more about the danger of tree wells, read this story by Gazette reporter R. Scott Rappold.
(PHOTO: A snowboarder rides through the aspens near the Priest Creek ski lift at Steamboat in December 2005. Christian Murdock, The Gazette)
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