I have had two scary experiences regarding tree wells. The first time this happened it was a sledding accident and my little nephew was 4 or 5 years old and bobsledding for the first time. I was trying to keep track of his slightly older brother and sister at the time and so I lost track of Sammy for a moment. Then we couldn't find him and got worried so we tracked the sled run he had been on and noticed it led to a tree then we started to hear him screaming down the tree well. He had fallen with the sled down around 7 or 8 feet which was high enough so he couldn't climb out because he was around 5. I held the feet of his older brother while he grabbed his brother's hands and I pulled them both out this way. Scary stuff if we hadn't been able to locate him. Luckily, we found the bobsled tracks so everything came out okay. But, it's also true that Sammy was extremely adventurous like this in many ways not just this one. But, luckily he survived this time.
We were able to get the bobsled out before we pulled him up. He handed it up to us. But, getting him out was harder than getting the bobsled out of the tree well.
My other experience is actually falling into a tree well in 40 feet of snow on mountaineering skis. I'm 6 foot 5 and my friend was only 5 foot 10 that I was skiing with. So, when he skied across a cornice next to a tree I thought I would be okay too. But, this wasn't true.
So, suddenly I was in 40 feet of snow and now down around 7 to 10 feet standing on a tree limb of a pine or fir tree down a tree well looking up at the surface of the snow 7 to 10 feet above me. I could breathe okay because usually snow melts out around 3 feet around bigger trees so there is air space so breathing wasn't a problem this time. But, a friend I screamed for came and rescued me or else I likely would still be there down that tree well. I handed him each of my skis so they wouldn't go down the tree well any further and then my poles and finally he offered his hand to allow me to climb up. First I had to climb up the tree to the top most branches and then I was able to take a hand up and out of there. However, I gave all tree tops about 6 to 10 feet berth or more after that experience while skiing on 40 feet of snow with my friend. There were no other serious incidents that day. We were skiing between Bunny Flat and 7 mile curve on Everitt Memorial highway on Mt. Shasta that day.
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