Teen skier dies after tree well accident

A 16-year-old skier from Columbia Falls

died at Kalispell Regional Medical Center on Sunday morning due to

injuries suffered from a skiing accident on Dec. 29 at Whitefish

Mountain Resort.

Niclas Waschle was found last Wednesday

unconscious, upside down in a tree well in an off-piste area near

the T-bar 2 lift line east of Big Mountain’s summit, according to

resort spokesman Donnie Clapp.

Two skiers stopped when they saw a pair

of skis sticking out of the snow and began digging Waschle out. A

licensed nurse who was skiing in the area stopped to help and

started administering CPR. A ski patroller arrived on scene and

utilized an automated external defibrillator. The victim was

unresponsive throughout the rescue effort.

Additional patrollers had a difficult

time getting to the scene on snowmobile due to deep snow drifts,

Clapp noted. After more help arrived, Waschle was transported on a

rescue toboggan to the resort’s medical clinic, operated by North

Valley Hospital, at the base of the mountain. Patrollers continued

chest compressions during the entire sled ride.

Waschle is a foreign-exchange student

from Ulm, Germany, living with the Vanhorn family from Columbia

Falls. He is a season-pass holder and a student at Columbia Falls

High School, where he ran on the cross-country team.

“It’s a horrible situation for many

people,” said cross-country coach Richard Menicke. “He was a super

young man.”

A medic at the resort clinic was able

to find a faint pulse on Waschle. Big Mountain Fire Department

transported him to KRMC, where personnel administered slow-warming

therapy, which is used to treat hypothermia.

Waschle’s family flew in from

Germany last week and made the decision to take the boy off of life

support on Sunday when they learned he had no brain activity.

It’s unclear if Waschle was skiing

alone at the time of the accident, how he fell into the tree well

or how long he was there. Blizzard conditions were present on the

mountain at the time, including heavy snow, steady wind and

freezing temperatures.