Skiing bill addresses tree wells

A bill that would amend the Montana law defining the risks of skiing be adding tree wells was sent to Gov. Steve Bullock on Feb. 13. The bill passed the House 92-7 after passing in the Senate 48-0.

Whitefish Mountain Resort currently is involved in a lawsuit filed by the parents of Niclas Waschle, a 16-year-old foreign exchange student from Germany who died after falling headfirst into a tree well in 2010.

Waschle’s parents, Patricia Birkhold-Waschle and Raimund Waschle, have sued Whitefish Mountain Resort, World Experience Teenage Student Exchange and Columbia Falls residents Fred and Lynne Vanhorn. Waschle was staying with the Vanhorns at the time.

Other tree-well deaths on Big Mountain occurred in 1978, 1979, 1990 and 2014.

Senate Bill 164, sponsored by Sen. Brian Hoven, R-Great Falls, modifies the state code definition of the risks of skiing that states that skiers “accept all legal responsibility for injury or damage of any kind to the extent that the injury or damage results from inherent dangers and risks of skiing.”

Tree wells form around trees with branches that extend down to the ground, such as the spruce trees that are found all around Big Mountain. The less densely packed snow at the base of trees is a hazard to skiers or snowboarders who fall into one. The odds of surviving after falling into a tree well, particularly headfirst, are low.

Specifically, the list of inherent snow risks would include machine-made snow “of any depth or accumulation, including but not limited to any depth of accumulation around or near trees or snowmaking equipment.”

Another change included in the bill refers to avalanche dangers, setting the expectation that avalanches are not an inherent risk if they occur on machine-groomed ski trails. Currently, that language applies more broadly to “designated ski trails.”