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July, 2025

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Skiing through trees...

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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25444 - Karma: 13,856
Its a great run. Some pockets of deep pow, lots of hidden trails and blind corners to whip around. After a series of 10 ridiculously deep faceshots, you finally pop out of the trees, go over some wild bumps on the runout, around another corner and ski out to the groomer to your other couple of friends and catch your breath. That was a seriously sick run, everyone wants to go back for seconds.

After 5 minutes, you're still waiting for your friend who was right behind you.

What should you do?
13 years ago
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Jaggy_Snake
Posts: 2287 - Karma: 1,418
If it was me in that situation and the fact that I ski with boarders mainly, I'd wait a little longer in case someone is hurt.

If it was the other way round however, they'd just go off hoping that I would catch up and 99 times out of 100 I would catch up and overtake them rather easily...
13 years ago
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DERS.
Posts: 6299 - Karma: 1,293
reading that gave me the tingles. cant wait to get back on the mtn. aint nothin like finding a gully in the trees full o pow, snaking through that hopping around logs and trees. then when you make it to the cat walk without stopping and you feel that nice little burn in your thighs. fuck yeah!
13 years ago
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Funnel
Posts: 7820 - Karma: 1,593
Liked it until the end. That's a good question though. It happened to me two seasons ago and it turned out my friend was in a tree well, fortunately another buddy was behind him. We couldn't hear him, we never would have found him, and we never could have hiked back up to him. Scary scary shit
13 years ago
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LC.
Posts: 5952 - Karma: 2,423
Best to have a plan before you find yourself in this situation.
13 years ago
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luc
Posts: 1000 - Karma: 607
this! we mostly pair up. so u just need to look for 1 guy!
13 years ago
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Holte
Posts: 10753 - Karma: 7,974
F that guy! There are no friends on a powder day, so you call him on the lift up and tell him to use his own damn shovel to dig himself out of the tree well.
13 years ago
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Farquaharson
Posts: 1203 - Karma: 246
This sounds about right. No one is a friend when there's powder to be found.
13 years ago
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Farquaharson
Posts: 1203 - Karma: 246
DOUBLE POST. JK with the above thought. Reading this definitely gave me the shivers, so stoked to be back on the mountain. This was perfectly described, except for the part where I'm yelling all the way down, always excited. FUCK. Stoked for the snow to start falling!
13 years ago
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SKI.ING
Posts: 2695 - Karma: 2,536
I think most of you guys are missing the point of OP.


13 years ago
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GANDALF
Posts: 6315 - Karma: 6,709
Well, if it gets past 5-6 minutes, im probably calling patrol. Treewells are silent killers, and arent really something you can wait another minute for. If i feel that someone is taking an unusually long time to come out, they are probably in trouble. And im not going to fuck around and waste time if i think that one of my friends could be headfirst in a treewell struggling to breathe.


13 years ago
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Northwest_steeze
Posts: 75 - Karma: 12
this.
13 years ago
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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25444 - Karma: 13,856
I have had this happen to me before, its very unsettling. One time it was a case of someone going a different direction, another time the person fell into a tree well and nearly died. Even with a good plan in place, its easy to loose visual on someone in tight trees, and nobody has eyes on the guy who goes last.

Did they come out somewhere different and follow the "meet at lift if we get separated" plan?

Did they fall somewhere?

Are they injured? Are they suffocating in a tree well while you sit and wonder?

Do you hike back up the run, the knee deep powder, searching through the trees for your buddy as the clock agonizingly runs?

How much time do you have to even think this all over while you're standing there?
13 years ago
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Skibumsmith
Posts: 5475 - Karma: 12,431
This is usually the case.
After 5 minutes I just figure they're at the lift waiting for me. But if they're not there get a liftie to radio patrol.
13 years ago
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Holte
Posts: 10753 - Karma: 7,974
There are tons of variables here, so those first five minutes largely come down to situation assessment. Is the missing friend answering his phone/radio? Where was the last place he was seen; was it in a particularly gnarly area, or did he just stop to pee at the bottom of the run? Can you hear somebody blowing a whistle up the hill? Did other skiers who are coming out of the trees after you see your friend? Has he been having binding prerelease problems?
Whenever this has happened to me, after a few minutes we'd split up the group: one person heads down to the lift, a few people go up the lift to try to retrace his run, and a couple people start hiking up. The trick at that point is communicating with the rest of the group.
After 10 minutes, if the situation seems bad, patrol is getting called.
There are tons of preventative measures that can keep this situation from happening very often though.
13 years ago
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VT_scratch
Posts: 8865 - Karma: 6,831
often conversations of the comrades whereabouts turn to "ehhhh he probably ended up ahead of us"
13 years ago
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yourthemannowdog
Posts: 4541 - Karma: 314
Have a plan where you all meet at a certain point. Stay together as much as possible. If you get to your meet up point and one person is missing, leave one person at the meet up point (anchor) and have the rest go up. If you can't find him/her, then call ski patrol. Never travel in groups smaller than three when skiing trees
13 years ago
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kvan
Posts: 3086 - Karma: 1,232
If the waiting period exceeds 15 minutes, definitely  head towards the bottom it could be possible that he could have exited from a different area. I guess it all depends upon the trail however... If both of these fail definitely contact patrol and take another sweep through the trail and attempt to follow your tracks to get somewhat of an idea of where he could be.

My dad used to patrol and one time he found some dead guy lodged underneath a snowmaking pipe. Whatever your plan of action is make sure to act quickly because there may not be much time left... Better safe than sorry.
13 years ago
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bakedpow
Posts: 8770 - Karma: 10,468
No friends on a pow day.
13 years ago
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bakedpow
Posts: 8770 - Karma: 10,468
Just kidding.

Iv been stuck in a tree well and luckily my buddy was pretty close, i wouldnt have gotten out. only took like 30 seconds for him to get me out
13 years ago
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PON3
Posts: 3817 - Karma: 783
I got caught in a tree well once on the run FUN at Vail. It was super scary because I was the only one who went on that run, every one else went straight to the sundown bowl. I was doing great until I caught and edge on a berm fliped over and fell sideways into the well. Thankfully the way I fell (Sideways) I only fell a little in, but still enough for it to be dangerous. I didn't panic, waiting 30 seconds to think calmly and catch my breath. I slowly un clicked and climbed my way out. Was such a scary experience. It took my 10 minutes to get out. I consider myself super lucky that day.
13 years ago
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a_burger
Posts: 5258 - Karma: 21,145
First thing I would do is call them usually. If they don't answer head down to the lift or to a meeting spot, if they aren't there tell the patrol and try and get back to wherever I last saw them as quick as possible.
13 years ago
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dayinthelifepc
Posts: 242 - Karma: 88
I would call him or scream his name loudly because if you get stuck in a tree well shit can be bad!
13 years ago
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PON3
Posts: 3817 - Karma: 783
This is why I ski with walki talkis. They may seem 90's ish. But way better than calling or texting since they hear every thing you say when you want.
13 years ago
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iSmokeweed
Posts: 4793 - Karma: 1,370
Smoke a blunt. wait. call ski patrol
13 years ago
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gravel
Posts: 5524 - Karma: 42,381
walkie talkie
13 years ago
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a_burger
Posts: 5258 - Karma: 21,145
This is what my parents had me do when I was younger, before I had a phone. Worked pretty well. The only issue was that at Sunday River you couldn't get any service in Aurora Jordan and Oz, which was where I spent most of my time.
13 years ago
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eheath
Posts: 61974 - Karma: 126,964
I mean, i've had situations like this happen, ski a really sick run and you don't stop til the bottom. It always ends up that the person takes a different route that they traverse more, so it takes longer to get back or they feel and they come back with their whole body caked in snow goggles off.
13 years ago
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PG_EDA
Posts: 478 - Karma: 839
Me and my brother have a system to avoid this, where we yell something to each other after every few minutes to make sure nobody has fell or something. I have although been in both sides of the situation where i have fell and been left or not heard when someone has fallen and just been like " what the fuck he was just behind me five minutes ago."
13 years ago
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3mania
Posts: 2657 - Karma: 10,904
They don't call it Closets for nothin'Click for larger image
13 years ago
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NinetyFour
Posts: 8650 - Karma: 13,410
Came here to post this. Hugely important tool, should neglect it. Never had the chance to ski steeps, the deep, or trees, but had alot of time on a sled out here in the flatlands. Any similar scenario where we've separated while riding, they've worked. Most walkie talkies operate on a line of site basis though, so that is something to be aware of.
13 years ago
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I_Am_Mod
Posts: 13214 - Karma: 3,753
I had a very similar experience last year with a girl that suddenly went missing from the group.

in our situation, we first tried calling her on cellphone and walkies. we didn't hear her so we stationed her best friend and one of the weaker skiers at the lift she had to take to wait for her to come out on her own. Meanwhile we went back up to the spot where we had last seen her and followed potential skitracks that could belong to her. we did this in groups of 2 and every group had walkies, cellphones. we slowly made our way down, calling out her name and listening but didn't find her. Since our first own search was unfruitful we informed the mountain rescue and they coordinated a search with us. We gave them detailed descriptions of her, where we were going and where we last saw her. Her best friend who was the most shook was kept sidelined with a liftie who had contact with skipatrol. The rest of us cooperated with the patrols/rescueworkers of the resort , they split our group of +-10 skiers up into 3 groups and divided us among their own experienced rescuers, we then searched the area in groups of 4-5 skiers, skiing down some potential tracks, spread out on a line, within sight/shouting distance and slowly made our way down the mountain.

in the end, after about an hour of organized searching, it was a group of two lifties/mtn rescuers that found her. Apparently she took a wrong turn and ended up in on a gnarly face and tried to ski her way down and out of it but it only got more hairy.... she fell and bruised a leg and got stuck behind a tree... Later we heard from herself that she took a completely different turn and traversed our initial run, she got to a lift and tried to find us again by going back up but she was actually heading to the other side of the resort, she got off the lift and panicked, she tried to make her way back to where we were and without knowing it, she skied down this gnarly face, she kept going lower and lower in the hope it would become easier but it didnt :/

in the end she got airlifted by a rescue helicopter but luckily she was quite ok!
That whole ordeal of 3-4hours between beginning to feel something is wrong and seeing her face to face again was definitely one of the most terrifying and exhilarating ski-experiences i've ever had !
13 years ago
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NinetyFour
Posts: 8650 - Karma: 13,410
Whoops, shouldn't** few other typos aswell.
13 years ago
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Bloc_chain
Posts: 26053 - Karma: 4,511
ding ding ding
13 years ago
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thewhiteprophet
Posts: 692 - Karma: 33
good thread, this has happened to me several times.

first thing I do is call them, but if there is no service I would wait another 5-10 minutes then take the chair up to look for them.

I was skiing with my cousin at big white and there was about 30cm of fresh and this goof caught a rock or something. I called him, went back and found him. we spend about 10 minutes looking for his ski then I looked about 10m down the hill and right next to a fatty tree well I saw about an inch of neon blue from his ski and grabbed it as fast as I could.

we could have been there all day.

/somewhatirellevantstory
13 years ago
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thewhiteprophet
Posts: 692 - Karma: 33
and one ski fell down a small (5ft) cliff. forgot to mention that.
13 years ago
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Clark_Griswold
Posts: 1283 - Karma: 49
Whenever me and my buddies go out into the trees or the BC for some sick powder runs we try to ski in a wall sort of line if at all possible so if you look to your right or left you will see if someone is behind and can just glance back a bit to see where they are. If not we will always have a system of ski in pairs. The "better" skier will let the other go in front of him/her and ski with them in your sights so that you're prepared for anything. The best skiers in the group always take up the tail to catch any stragglers or address any issues and 9/10 times we will have walkie talkies. Always safe in the powder. Or like a few other said no friends on pow days
13 years ago
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Peachbutt
Posts: 623 - Karma: 601
Wait. Unless there's good pow, (more than a few inches, damn east coast), and I know they can handle themselves, then I might go off.
13 years ago
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DizzyG
Posts: 698 - Karma: 296
In backcountry/super gnarly, keep in sight of eachother and stop every few hundred feet. Seems tedious but its worth it. In bounds if theres service then just call and I usually wait just down the run (close enough that you can hike back if you have too) so you dont have to commit to going back to the lift.
13 years ago
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Cotter
Posts: 2546 - Karma: 849
I really enjoy this thread. I have a story of my own, me and a few friends on our school ski trip were at a mountain that didnt usually groom the hill because they got alot of pow every day, and that day it was snowing hard about (45cm good for the east coast) and my friend decided he was going to make his own trail while we we all on the main rain. We always had sure sight of him until he fell into this deep 5 foot hole. Luckily one of the guys in the back saw his bright orange snowpants coming out of the snow and was able to free him. The rest of the day was amazing and I will never forget it.
13 years ago
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powderdayyys
Posts: 7 - Karma: 16
If you think its serious, send someone to the chalet for patrol help, and you and your other friends should do another lap to the same run and check tree wells. because if someone is stuck in a deep tree well they might as well be in an avalanche. This situation can be pretty serious
13 years ago
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Miomo
Posts: 4302 - Karma: 14,137
No friends on powder days.
13 years ago
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Vitiligo
Posts: 535 - Karma: 1,126
Crazy! How hurt was she? She got airlifted
13 years ago
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NinetyFour
Posts: 8650 - Karma: 13,410
This reminds me of "Tailgunner" from All.I.Can. He wore the headset to communicate and he always went down last to make sure everyone made it out ok. I think if he himself was missing at a meeting point, then you should be concerned. If him and another rider where missing
13 years ago
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NinetyFour
Posts: 8650 - Karma: 13,410
.... Then someone is lIkely hurt. Pardon me, Dat mobile.
13 years ago
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acc
Posts: 4122 - Karma: 222
This happened to us in Revy in February. Our plan was to meet at the very bottom. The dumbass who got separated continued to spin laps. Most of our group bitche at him. Def wanted to kill him. He won't do that again.
13 years ago
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whoa-dere
Posts: 10596 - Karma: 7,105
i dont know if i should feel happy that ive had any of these tree well experiences or sad because i live in pancake flat ontario
13 years ago
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Peter.
Posts: 23796 - Karma: 13,018
gotta have some sort of safety call out, aka walkie talkies, phone calls, whistles, etc
13 years ago
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SKI.ING
Posts: 2695 - Karma: 2,536
A good reason not to buy white snowgear.
13 years ago
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rareison
Posts: 10263 - Karma: 219
This happens alot with my brother, I'm always waiting for him. This May I was skiing at Lale Louise and it was the best pow day of my life, there was probably a foot of fresh covering the entire mountain, so I was doing tree runs all day with my brother and friend who are both snowboarders, and I was always waiting for them. One time I was waiting for my brother for like 20 minutes, and we though he got stuck somewhere, but he took a different way and was already waiting for us at the gondola
13 years ago
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Jelle
Posts: 337 - Karma: 715
a good thing to do is tie a little whislte to the inside of your jacket so incase you get stuck in a treewell or something you just blow that whistle as hard as you can and hopefully your friends can hear you..
13 years ago
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