The most snow I ever skied on in Mt. Shasta was 40 feet of snow at Bunny Flat

I remember it was difficult to get up on top of the snow from the parking lot because it was so high above us (40 feet) but once we had sort of climbed it like you would Ice Climbing and throwing our skis up on top of the snow we could then ski from Bunny Flat 6900 feet down to what is called 7 mile Curve on Everitt memorial highway below us which is likely around 5000 feet I'm thinking there.

As my friend and I skied with mountaineering skis down it was okay until my friend who is a lot shorter and lighter than I am skied over a cornice between two trees. So, the tops of the big trees like pine and Fir trees you could see only about the top 3 feet of the trees the snow was so deep then. 

However, when I tried to ski the same cornice between two trees I fell down a tree well and suddenly found myself standing on a tree limb about 7 to 10 feet down a Fir Tree. (A Tree well usually forms around a tree from the top down to the base because of the limbs going out and the way that they shed snow. Only the top few feet is usually completely covered with snow and as the snow grows deeper the tree tends to melt this tree well out around 3 to 5 feet around a tree. However, many snowboarders die because they fall down a tree well and cannot get out of their snowboard and die down these tree wells. Whereas mostly skiers are able to get their skis off if they are wearing mountaineering skis or just cross country skis.

So, I took my skis off one by one and handed them up to my friend who heard my yells. Then I took his hand or I couldn't have climbed out of there. So, without my friend I would likely have died there like many snow boarders do when they fall down a tree well.

Without both my skis I couldn't have stayed on top of the snow and gotten back to our vehicle and home. 

So, in deep snow stay away from tree tops because you don't want to fall down a tree well. I wouldn't have survived that likely without my friend to take my skis and to give me a hand out of the tree well back then.

Note: When I looked down from inside the tree well I could see another 20 to 30 feet below me before I would get to ground level. So, it was a strange feeling to be that far up in the air from the ground with the snow so deep and yet still being so far below the top of the snow.