Tree Wells-Please be careful

This may be old hat for most of you, but Baker patrol (I believe) has a excellent tutorial on tree wells.  www.treewelldeepsnowsafety.com/

Did you drop your skis and boot up, or touring gear used?

Thanks for the link to the tree well tutorial. Interesting that they say highest danger is with new snow and not related to overall snow depth. I agree with that.

I clicked out of skis and sort of swam up hill. I was on Spatulas which are extreme reverse camsber skis and no use for side stepping. I think it was faster jus to swim than try to sidestep. The snow was so loose you could easily wade through it. In more dense snow keeping skis on may have made more sense.

I'm no expert, but my experience tells me both new snow and early season conditions up the tree well hazard, so both combined is the worst. Indeed turns above the wells are good to avoid - I've been surprised how far out the "gravity well" seems to extend in early season before we get some serious consolidation events.

Good work, Dad - sounds like a serious father/son bonding moment. Looks like he got right back on that horse!

Glad to here eveyones OK.

Glad to hear it turned out allright for you. I had an "experience" with a friend and his dog yesterday. We were out touring and he lost his dog on the way down. Back up the run and probing around in the dark on a steep slope looking for the K9. Thankfully the dog was wearing a beacon. We found him laying in a tree well....he had given up....but was otherwise fine. I've always hesitated when partners want to bring there dogs on deeper powder days. I just don't like that one extra thing to worry about.

Second time was at Crystal.  A good friend and excellent skier (and TAY poster) came in "hot" on a turn, lost control just to the point of sliding quickly downhill.  He braced for impact, hit the tree at a 90 degree angle with his skis, and proceeded to fall in.  We had skied all day together and we simply lost sight of eachother near the bottom (talking skied out, popular run where ones guard would be down).

I was Tony's friend that went in the ski well.  I never had the mouth full of snow or "trapped" sensation but it was an enlightening experience.  I managed to hang on to some branches and after unclicking from my skis and letting my feet swing down my head was about 1 foot below the surface of the snow and there was just empty space/loose snow below my feet.  It appears that I could have dropped down another 4+ feet.  Climbing out was a challange given the bottomless unconsolidated nature of the snow.

I try to always ski in sight of my partners when in trees but it's challanging if you're in front.  You have to stop frequently to see how the person in back is doing, which is hard to do when the snow is blower and fun and you want to keep weaving and dodging through the trees.   Just takes some awareness...

Scott