Lawsuit filed in C-Falls skier's death

On Dec. 29, 2010, Niclas Waschle was skiing off a groomed trail near the top of the Bigfoot T-bar at Whitefish Mountain Resort when he fell headfirst into a tree well.

Heavy snow was falling at the time of the accident, but two other skiers noticed his skis protruding from the snow about 11 a.m. and dug him out. But it was too late — Waschle had a pulse but never recovered. Three days later, he died from the effects of suffocation.

The Columbia Falls community mourned the death of the foreign exchange student from Germany. He was living with Fred and Lynne Vanhorn and was a member of the Columbia Falls High School cross-country team.

Now, three years later, Waschle’s mother Patricia, father Raimund and brother Philip are suing Winter Sports Inc., which operates Whitefish Mountain Resort, the Vanhorns and World Experience, the company that sponsors and operates the foreign exchange student program, for negligence and damages surrounding the 16-year-old’s death.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula, alleges that Winter Sports Inc. failed to exercise “reasonable diligence” by marking, blocking off, barricading or otherwise warning of the tree well hazard near the T-bar lift.

Thousands of trees dot Big Mountain, where the resort is located, and many naturally form tree wells when snows get deep. But the lawsuit maintains that the tree, which was on the edge of the groomed surface, posed an “unnecessary hazard.”

Winter Sports Inc. publicly responded to the lawsuit on Jan. 3.

“For the entire Whitefish Mountain Resort community, Niclas Waschle’s injury and death was an emotional and tragic event. For those of us personally involved, it was heart breaking and unforgettable,” spokeswoman Riley Polumbus said.

“The tragedy is unnecessarily compounded by the effort through this lawsuit, filed nearly three years after the events, to blame innocent parties, including Whitefish Mountain Resort, for the results of the known risks inherent in the sport of skiing.

“Tree well and deep snow immersion accidents such as this one occur in off-groomed, forested areas with deep, unconsolidated snow. It is not reasonable to identify a particular tree among the tens of thousands within the resort boundary that has a dangerous tree well by sight. The lawsuit is groundless. We are unfortunately forced to defend it vigorously and seek justice though our court system. This we will do.”

The plaintiffs claim the resort could have done something about the tree well and noted that a 29-year-old snowboarder from Kalispell died in a tree well 10 days later “at or near the very spot where Niclas had encountered the tree well.”

The plaintiffs also allege that World Experience was negligent because it did not allow Waschle to return to Germany during his stay in the U.S. and prohibited him from taking a laptop computer or cell phone to the host country. Those restrictions prevented Waschle’s parents in Germany from maintaining normal parental oversight, the plaintiffs claim.

The plaintiffs also claim the Vanhorns were negligent because they allowed Waschle to ski alone in inclement weather, noting that Fred Vanhorn was a ski instructor at the resort. According to the resort, however, Fred Vanhorn was not a ski instructor but a ski ambassador, a person who shows visitors around the ski area.

Lynne Vanhorn declined to comment on the lawsuit — she said her family hadn’t seen the complaint but had learned about it from a newspaper.

The lawsuit, filed on Christmas Eve, demands a jury trial but doesn’t specify damages. The Waschles are represented by Great Falls attorney Steven M. Johnson.

Raimund Waschle is an art teacher and artist in Germany.