Canadian skier dies in Big Mountain tree well
A man from Alberta was found dead in a tree well at Whitefish Mountain Resort on Sunday, Feb. 16.
The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office identified the man as Thomas Podivinsky, 48, of Calgary.
Podivinsky was skiing with a friend on the north side of the mountain when they became separated at about 12:30 p.m. When Podivinsky failed to meet up with a group of people as planned, he was reported missing at about 1 p.m.
Ski patrollers found him between the Silvertip and H ollywood runs upside-down in a tree well — a hollowed area of loose snow at the base of a tree that is surrounded by deeper, densely packed snow. Attempts to resuscitate Podivinsky were unsuccessful.
Podivinsky worked as the chief geophysicist at Athabasca Oil Corp.
His younger brother Edi Podivinsky won a bronze medal in alpine skiing in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Edi Podivinsky finished third in the downhill race won by gold medalist Tommy Moe of Whitefish.
“Skiing was his passion. It was his sport,” Thomas Podivinsky’s father, Edward Podivinsky, told the Toronto Star.
The elder Podivinsky told the Star that both brothers learned to ski in Edmonton.
Tom made the provincial ski team while his younger brother became a member of the national team and stayed on it for 13 years.
This is the second tree well death at Big Mountain in a month. A 54-year-old California man was found dead in a tree well on the north side of the resort near the Bighorn run on Jan. 11.
Douglas Spring and his son had become separated. The son returned to the area where he last saw his father and found him with his skis sticking out from a tree well.
Previous tree well deaths occurred on Big Mountain in 1978, 1979, 1990 and 2010. Niclas Waschle, a German exchange student at Columbia Falls High School, died in a tree well near the top of the Bigfoot T-bar on Dec. 29, 2010.
Two weeks after Waschle’s death, a 29-year-old Kalispell snowboarder died after falling into a tree well, also near the Bigfoot T-bar.
This year, Waschle’s family filed suit against Winter Sports Inc., which operates Whitefish Mountain Resort; Waschle’s host family, the Vanhorns of Columbia Falls; and World Experience, the company that sponsors and operates the foreign exchange student program The Waschle family claimed negligence and damages surrounding the 16-year-old’s death.
Whitefish Mountain Resort has posted a list of tree well safety tips and guidelines on its Web site and at the end of its daily snow report. Skiers are advised to avoid deep snow and trees and to always ski with a partner.