Tree Well

from wikipedia the definition of a Tree Well is:
A tree well is a dangerous void or area of loose snow around the trunk of a tree which is surrounded by deep snow. A person, especially a skier or snowboarder, can easily fall into this well, possibly causing serious injury or death.

Having had my own brush with a Tree Well in about 25 feet of snow on Mt. Shasta when I heard about the Lake Tahoe snowboarder found dead in a tree well I thought it might be time to share about the danger of tree wells.

My first experience with the danger of Tree wells was also on Mt. Shasta near Clear Creek up from Mud Creek River on the mountain at about 8000 to 9000 feet. My wife and I and my kids had my nephews and niece playing in the snow with us on the mountain who were then in the 1980s between 4 to 9 years of age. The youngest was a 4 year old boy named Sammy. Well, Sammy liked to take a lot of risks on a sled and then suddenly we heard an echo of his voice but didn't know where he was. So we kept calling him and telling him to yell until we found him 10 feet down a tree well of a Shasta Red Fir tree. I couldn't reach him even though I'm 6 feet four inches. So, I lowered his older brother down so Sammy could grab his brothers legs and then we all pulled the two of them out of the tree well. I was amazed Sammy had fallen that far and hadn't broken anything going down that hole but he had survived even if he was a bit shaken up from the experience.

After that experience for the next 20 years I always walked about 3 to 5 feet minimum away from tree wells either on foot or when on  snowshoes or on cross country skis or downhill skis or the once or twice I tried a snowboard.

Then there was the year there was about 25 or more feet of snow and I tried to ski from Bunny Flats down to 7 mile curve on Everette Memorial Hiway on Mt. Shasta. I followed my old friend down a route we have skied over the years since about 1976 or earlier. However, since he is shorter and lighter than I when he crossed a cornice between two trees with fairly close tree wells he went over the cornice while I fell through down a tree well and found myself about 10 feet down a tree well standing on a limb of a Fir tree with 15 feet of tree well below me and 10 feet above me. Being in my mid 50s at the time I wasn't particularly happy about this. Even in my 20s or 30s this would have been sketchy. Luckily, I yelled at my friend and he came back to where the cornice had collapsed into the tree well. I told him I was going to try to take off my skis without falling off the limb and going deeper. He said I should hand my skis up one at a time because the snow was so deep that I would be in trouble if I didn't have skis to keep me on top of the snow even if I was able to crawl and climb out of the tree well. So, I very gingerly took off one ski at a time and carefully handed up each ski and then each pole for him to park on the surface 10 feet above my feet. Then luckily, I was able to climb the tree and then my friend gave me his hand to help pull me out of the tree well. I realized that had I been alone and if I couldn't have gotten cell phone reception that I would have died there down the well just like the snowboarder did this week in Lake Tahoe.