Skiing & Snowboarding
Tree Well & Deep Snow Safety:
Why it pays to have friends
on a powder day
Fresh powder lures many of us to search out untracked lines, either on open slopes or deep in the woods, in pursuit of a sublime connection to the mountains. Photo by Susan Staples.
Reports of two skiers and one snowboarder dying in separate inbounds avalanches out West in December overshadow what is a more likely danger inbounds on powder days: falling into tree wells or deep snow drifts and suffocating before someone rescues you.
On a recent powder day, my husband, friends and I were traversing to an area of Jay Peak Resort, Vt., where we hoped to find untracked snow. I suddenly clipped my ski tip on a stump and went down. I found myself on the side of a large pine tree, clinging to the branches, my head pointed downhill and my legs uphill, still clicked into my bindings.
I floundered in the snow, trying to push myself up, but realized I would first need to remove my skis. I managed to find my ski pole and reach above to release my bindings. Fortunately, my head wasn’t buried under snow. However, the more I moved around to try and get myself up, the deeper my body sunk into the snow.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Many Western resorts have stepped up their efforts to make sure their guests are aware of the dangers of tree wells and deep snow immersions. The Northwest Avalanche Institute,
Mt. Baker Ski Area, Crystal Mountain and Dr. Robert Cadman (he researches NARSID cases in British Columbia) have established a public safety campaign based on Paul Baugher’s and
Dr. Cadman’s findings and recommendations. Visit their website, Tree Well and Deep Snow Safety, at www.treewelldeepsnowsafety.com
If you enjoy reading studies and getting the nitty gritty details, you can read
Paul Baugher’s study, “Risk Trends
at U.S. and British Columbia Ski Areas: An Evaluation of the Risk
of Snow Immersion Versus Avalanche Burials,” on the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center website.
“How on earth am I going to get up?” I thought to myself. I was the last one in my group, I could see them all waiting just ahead of me, and since we were off the beaten path, no one else was around. I wasn’t injured, so I didn’t want to call out for someone in my group to work their way back to help me.
“Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up,” played itself over and over in my mind.
Adding to my frustration, the pine tree was on a steep knoll, my skis were above me and I didn’t want to flip myself around to get up because then I would have a difficult time retrieving my skis. Plus, I was truthfully worried that my head somehow would end up underneath the snow. In the end, I had no other choice than to roll over and flip myself around. I couldn’t climb back up in the deep snow, so I used my pole to drag my skis down to where I was standing.
If you’ve ever fallen into a tree well while skiing or snowboarding, you know the very real threat they pose of suffocation. If you’re wondering what a tree well even is, or can’t imagine how they can possibly be hazardous, you’re not alone.
While most skiers and snowboarders who live to ride powder and trees have heard of avalanches, the equally dangerous chance of suffocating in a tree well isn’t even on their radar screen. In fact, the technical term for this—Non-Avalanche Related Snow Immersion Death or NARSID—also applies to people who fall in deep snow, can’t get up and suffocate before being rescued.
Anatomy of a Non-Avalanche Related Snow Immersion Death
I found myself on the side of a large pine tree, clinging to the branches, my head pointed downhill and my legs uphill, still clicked into my bindings.
It’s important to note that an accident is classified as NARSID only if the sole cause of death is asphyxia—if there is any indication of an avalanche, trauma or hypothermia, the death is not included in the NARSID figures. That means we are not talking about people who slam into a tree and die of blunt force trauma—we are talking about someone who falls, is uninjured, but gets buried in deep snow and can’t get out of it.
If you’re wondering what a tree well is, imagine a tree standing in snow. A tree well is the hole that forms around the base of the tree. This hole is perfectly visible around trees such as aspens and maples. Now imagine an evergreen tree, whose low branches prevent snow from filling in that hole around the trunk. The wide breadth of the evergreen branches can create very large tree wells. The problem with evergreens is that the low branches hide the tree wells from view. In addition, the snow around the evergreen is often loose and unconsolidated.
When you fall near or into a tree well, the snow collapses around you. If the evergreen branches are loaded with fresh snow, that snow dumps on top of you. Most often, people fall into tree wells while skiing or snowboarding in ungroomed terrain. But sometimes the evergreens are alongside a groomed trail and the person either decides to dip into the trees and falls or the skier slides off the groomed trail into the tree well. As shown in the sidebar of last season’s NARSID fatalities, both skiers and riders are at risk, and it can happen on trails of all ability levels. Note that one of last season’s fatalities occurred by falling in deep snow, not a tree well.
After a series of tree well deaths at resorts in the Pacific Northwest a few years ago, Paul Baugher, the ski patrol director at Crystal Mountain, Wash., and director of the Northwest Avalanche Institute, decided to see just how common snow immersion deaths are and what can be done to prevent them.
What he found is eye opening: from 1990/91 to 2005/06, 51 NARSID cases were reported compared to 55 out-of-bounds avalanche deaths; NARSID cases correlated well with out-of-bounds avalanche deaths until the last five years of the study, when NARSID cases outpaced out-of-bounds avalanche fatalities by about 50 percent; NARSID risk is highest inside the boundaries of a resort; time is short, most people stop breathing within 10 minutes; in two experiments, 90% of people placed in tree wells could not rescue themselves and none were able to wait more than two minutes before they signaled to be rescued because they were running out of air; NARSID deaths typically happen during or after large snowfalls, when snow is still light and has not yet condensed.
We are not talking about people who slam into a tree and die of blunt force trauma—we are talking about someone who falls, is uninjured, but gets buried in
deep snow and can’t get out of it.
While NARSID is particularly a hazard out West, where huge conifers and abundant snowfall are prevalent, those who ski in the East are not immune, especially with the rise in skiing and snowboarding off-piste and in the trees.
Fortunately, if you follow proper safety procedures, you can prevent or at least minimize the danger. Skiers and snowboarders familiar with backcountry safety will recognize many of the recommended protocol. Of course, the easiest way to prevent deep snow immersions is to stay on the groomed trails. But for those of us who choose to seek out the deep after a fresh snowfall:
• Always ski or snowboard with a partner. While “no friends on a powder day” is a familiar mantra, if you’re all alone, there’s no one to save you if you fall into a tree well or take a digger in deep snow.
• Always keep your partner in sight. This means you ski or snowboard one at a time—watch your partner until he stops, then your partner watches you until you reach him. Leapfrog this way all the way down the mountain. Stay close enough so you can quickly respond if you need to dig out your partner. Keep in mind that most people who die from a deep snow immersion were with others, but they got too far apart and friends couldn’t respond in time to pull them out. It takes a long time to hike back up a slope in deep snow to rescue your partner.
• Never wear your ski pole straps when skiing in deep snow or trees. Poles can hamper your ability to clear an air space and dig yourself out. (Experienced tree skiers do not wear pole straps anyway because of the possibility of shoulder, wrist and arm injuries resulting from snagging your pole on a tree.)
• Choose areas of widely spaced trees so you can avoid tree wells if you fall.
Always ski or snowboard with a partner. While “no friends on a powder day” is a familiar mantra, if you’re all alone, there’s no one to save you if you fall
into a tree well or take a digger in deep snow.
• If you find yourself falling or sliding near a tree well, do everything possible to prevent yourself from falling in: grab branches, hug the tree, roll your body to get your feet below you. Try to keep your head above the snow.
• Once buried, don’t thrash around—the more you struggle, the more you sink and the more you become immobilized as the snow consolidates around you. Create a breathing space around your nose and mouth. Stay calm to conserve air and extend your time of survival until you can be rescued. While you should try to free yourself, the most important thing is to maintain an air pocket. Move your body slowly in a rhythmic, smooth rocking manner to hollow out the snow and make an air pocket as well as compact the snow around you.
• Carry the same gear as a backcountry traveler: a shovel, transceiver, probe and whistle. Since the initial study was done, Avalungs have increasingly become a popular piece of backcountry gear that may also prove useful n a deep snow immersion since they help you breath while buried under snow.
• Do not leave to get help if your partner falls into deep snow. Help will never arrive in time. Make every effort to dig the person out. Try to unbury the person’s head first so they can breathe. Blow your whistle and yell for help but keep digging.
There’s not much else that brings a huge smile to my face the way skiing trees on a powder day does. I love the floating sensation, the challenge of finding a route, and the sounds of hoots and hollers of other skiers and snowboarders enjoying the ride. While I have no plans to give it up, I’ll continue to practice safe deep snow protocol.
IN MEMORIUM: NARSID fatalities, winter 2007/08
December 22, 2007—24-year-old Tal Hofstra, an Edmonton ski instructor, was skiing on the day of the grand opening of Revelstoke Mountain Resort in British Columbia. He disappeared on the advanced Jalapeńo run. His body was found in a tree well three days later, not far from where he was last seen by the two friends who were with him.
December 27, 2007—28-year-old Eric McConeghy of Seattle suffocated after falling into a deep powder bank or drift at Mt. Hood Meadows in Oregon. His friends tried frantically to unbury him but they were too late.
Jan. 15, 2008—45-year old Mark Joseph Stout of Pennsylvania was skiing at Steamboat Ski Area in Colorado on the intermediate Cowboy Coffee trail in the Morningside Park area after three feet of new snow had fallen. When he didn’t meet his daughter and friends at the bottom of the trail, they contacted ski patrol, who later found him dead in a tree well. He was Steamboat’s third such death from this kind of accident.
January 25, 2008—22-year-old Jared Daniel of Auburn, Mass., suffocated after falling head first into a tree well on the intermediate Snooze Bar trail in the Morningside Park area at the Steamboat Ski Area in Colorado. He was Steamboat's second snow immersion fatality, in a tree well, in only 10 days (see Mark Stout above).
January 27, 2008—37-year-old San Francisco skier Tyler Palmer died after landing upside down in a tree well at Homewood Mountain Resort near Lake Tahoe, California. He was skiing on Hobbit Land, a single-black-diamond trail.
February 10, 2008—47-year-old Brad Peterson from Boise, Idaho, died while skiing at Brundage Mountain Resort in Idaho. Rescuers found his body in the Meadow Bowl area in a tree well, where he had fallen in on his back, and the snow had fallen on top of him. The tree well was about 11 feet deep and he was buried in about six feet of snow.