Tree well inversion rescue video

Since he was the author of the data in Tree Well & Deep Snow Safety , I queried Paul Baugher on the topic to find out if he any more info on the topic since the publishing of the piece.

Here is reply:
“Ron,
Thanks for the interest. Here is my paper from 2008 that discusses some of the problems with rescue- see the results of the field experiment with live subjects. Also I updated the research this summer. We have designed a new brochure that is now available through the NSAA and we are in the midst of the redoing the treewelldeepsnowsafety.com website. It will contain more information on rescue including the importance of tunneling for the airway. By the way we are changing the label to Snow Immersion Suffocation.
Though this is primarily a ski area problem (3% of U.S. cases have occurred in the backcountry) your folks are alpine skiers as well. Please post this on TAY.
Best Regards,
Paul Baugher
Risk Manager, Boyne Western Operations/ Director, Crystal Mountain Ski Patrol
Owner, International Mountain Guides”

Here is a link to Paul’s article: 2008 ISSW Snow Immersion Paper

Maybe we've been thinking about tree-well hazard the wrong way. We tend to lump tree-well hazard with avalanche hazard and think of partner rescue as an acceptable backup in case of an accident.

This may be the wrong mindset.

Instead, maybe we should approach deep snow skiing in trees the same way we approach unroped skiing on a crevassed glacier. Unroped skiing on glaciers is considered acceptable if the crevasses are visible and the party skis conservatively. All skiers slow down, ski well below their abilities, and give crevasses a wide berth. The mindset is that even if you carry a rope and wear harnesses, falling into a crevasse is unacceptable and a rope and other gear is likely to be good only for a body recovery.

Maybe we should think about tree-wells the same way. Tree-wells are deadly and if the last person in a group goes in, his or her friends may be unable to find the victim in time to save them. Thinking like a glacier skier, every member of a tree skiing party should give tree-wells the same level of respect that you'd give an open crevasse. Slow down, stay completely under control, and give each tree a wide berth.

Except for rare instances (like the one described by Koda) the location of a tree-well is obvious, because there's a tree in it. If you take the mindset that falling into a tree-well is never acceptable, it seems to me that this might lead to the kind of skiing that would reduce the danger to a minimal level.

A trip leader from The Mountaineers has, in my opinion, the best safety advice for avalanche and tree wells.  Before we started down he would remind us to keep the person behind in sight, because that is the person who is going to rescue you.  We also had a designated order of skiers.  The order would change from time to time, but you knew who should be directly ahead and behind for each descent.  The last skier will always be more at risk than the earlier skiers.  Having a string of skiers may be safer than a 2- or 3-buddy system as there will be fewer "last" skiers. 

This system is not perfect.  Sometimes the skier behind takes a slightly different route and you find yourself separated or out of order.  Calling back and forth helps.  Still, it works better than the usual advice to watch the skier ahead, which also works until that skier disappears from sight. 

The advice to keep your potential rescuer in sight is not intended to imply that you may ski recklessly and expect to be rescued. I am equally afraid of tree wells and avalanche. I am also an avid practitioner of the face plant, unintentional of course. From a post above, it sounds like the skier in the tree well may have been avoiding close encounters with trees but tripped on a hidden object and was launched into the tree well. I can relate to that.

Mike

I admit to being pretty disappointed with the leading and trailing bits of this video. It has the distinct feel of marketing. But the middle 90% looks pretty real, with the possible exception of the fact that the helmetcam was so perfectly positioned and omnipresent, it seemed a little improbable. I have never worn a camera on my ski helmet, but unless you are concentrating on keeping the camera steady, it is very difficult to keep it zoned in on the subject.

That issue aside, the tree well is a very real danger to all skiers, unless you never (ever) fall. Did you notice the size of the tree? It was not a majestic hemlock as might be imagined, but a pathetically small (almost) seedling . One should ask themselves "How many times have I skied by a tree of that size?". Maybe after seeing the video we all will begin noticing such traps and appreciate the danger. I daresay the actual skier involved had no chance to escape on his own. If your skis stay attached, you are sunk.

I had the misfortune to fall into a well not unlike the one pictured. I was in a group of 6 or 8 and was the last skier down a modest glade, when I took a header and landed upside-down with a mouthful of snow. My immediate panic was that I was going to black out and suffocate, but I was able to calm down and get my breathing under control. (I happened to be wearing a heart-rate monitor and it pegged at 235). I tried yelling for help but the sound only travels a few feet when buried in soft snow. Fortunately, I had broken one of my poles (a precious Choiunard classic) and thus could move that arm around to release my tele-bindings. It might have been possible to extract my wrists from the pole straps, but I did not have to go that route. I had only recently decided to ski in the backcountry without tether cables on my skis, so that facilitated my self extraction. It is possible that I would not have been able to get out of the hole if I had those safety straps clipped.

Which brings me to the issue of group dynamics. I was only about 100 vertical feet above the spot where my group was going to stop and skin up for the next run. It is very easy to convince one's self that the missing skier ended up taking a slightly different line and would emerge onto the uptrack at a different place. I could very easily have been in the well for several hours (it was getting late in the afternoon) before they all figured out that I was MIA. The snow was pretty tracked up, making it not obvious where I had gone down. I was pretty shaken, but what I least appreciated was the indifference that the group showed when I told my story. They are all stronger skiers than I, but do not share my cautious nature. I have not ventured out with them since that day.

The lessons I took away:
1. Ski with people who share your group ethic,
2. If you ski alone, don't venture where others will not easily find you,
3. Think carefully about straps on poles and skis.
4. Do not assume that a small tree poses no danger. Think about how many similar trees you encounter.

Obviously, as is with the case with avalanches, the primary line of defense for tree well snow immersion is to don’t fall in. Despite this fundamental fact, it appears that many of the posters (or maybe all of them -- yours truly included) have found them in a tree well with their head lower than their feet.

The piece done by Paul Baugher that glenn_b linked to ( www.treewelldeepsnowsafety.com ) has some good info re: avoidance. I especially liked the reminder to “leap frog” ski deep snow so that watching ski partner is always above and in sight of the skiing partner. I am going to try and do a better doing this when conditions merit. But there is really very little (just a bit under “4. FIGHT TO SURVIVE” on page 5) to help the rescuer and/or the victim do a more effective rescue. Paul is apparently in the midst of redoing that info so it might be worth keeping an eye on it.

There has been some other pretty good suggestions here regarding skiing policies and procedures to mitigate the likelihood of falling in.
But again, there doesn’t seem too much, to help us become better tree well rescuers.
And it does not sound like I was the only one that felt that rescue effected in the video could have been accomplished much more effectively had the folks practiced a rescue drill a few times.

I think developing some "strategic shoveling" guidelines for tree wells would be very valuable to the outdoor community.

I agree.

Perhaps we should practice getting out of tree wells more often...

I am planning on doing exactly that.

Interestingly, I have some related experience that may be helpful in this endeavor.
I actually have a fair amount of time rooting around in tree wells (head up, of course). This was in junction with teaching ski mountaineering students how to fashion what I call the “30 second” snow shelter.

The technique his use involves skiing as close as I dare to the subject tree (usually skinning) and then release my bindings while staying upright. Then using the poles to help stay upright I walk through the branches directly towards the trunk of the tree, usually dropping the poles as soon as I drop into the branches, where the poles just get in the way. With a typical PNW snowpack, to a casual observer one will appear to disappear almost immediately. Once bottomed out it is a simple matter to just root around laterally back in forth to make room for the intended occupants. 

So this experience leads me to believe that, at least some times, and even maybe the most of the time, depending on the particular tree well, branch cover, etc, one should be able to get an airway to the victim much sooner that it appeared to happen in the video.

So for practice, I can see us having one person acting as the “victim” and walking into the tree well, in this case head side up, as I described above. In this case the victim’s feet or lower legs would serve as the victim’s “head” for the practice, for obvious reasons.
A “rescuer” would then enter the tree well two or three feet away from the victim’s hole so avoid knocking snow into the victim’s entry hole. Once bottomed out on the rescue hole, the rescuer packs out the snow enough to get some working room and then immediately begins tunneling for the victim’s “head” (in this case, feet) to establish and maintain an airway and communication to the victim.

Once accomplished, then the victim can be extracted with lateral strategic shoveling as needed while care is made not to disturb the airway.
If enough rescuers are available (as there were in the video) two rescuers could drop into the tree well, one either side of the victim, to help improving the chances of getting a new airway to the victim sooner, and maintaining same, while the others immediately start strategic shoveling.

Summarily, unless I am mistaken, I believe that, if it all possible, by approaching the victim from within the tree well rather than from the snow surface above, we will have a higher likelihood of more quickly and more reliably getting fresh air to the victim, thus simplifying the rescue.

Jeff, if there's a body of commentary on this video indicating what was done right, what was done wrong, and what would have made a better rescue....can we hear more about it?  Read it for ourselves somewhere?  I'm finding it frustrating to hear that the video "was circulated around the Canadian ski guide community last year" for long enough to achieve consensus in the absence of any further details.

Mark,
Unfortunately these conversations took place on a professional forum that isn't open to the public. The people that set it up have limited the access to certified guides so the guides can speak/write freely. It is a very helpful exchange but if it was open to the public many of the comments would be censored for fear of them being taken out of context or misunderstood.

In my opinion, the best way to avoid a serious tree well incident (while still having fun skiing in the trees on a deep day) is to do a good job buddy skiing. If you have a good ability match with your ski partner it's pretty easy to keep each other in sight or in voice contact. My favorite "trick" is to have the person in the back continually making noise, so the person in the front knows they are still there. That way the person in front can focus on the skiing and stop looking over their shoulder.

Then if you do have an incident you have someone relatively close by to help. One of the hardest parts of a tree well incident is actually finding the patient. If you aren't close when they disappear it ends up being a huge transceiver search without the benefit of an avalanche path to limit the search area.