WHITEFISH – Big Mountain Fire and Rescue officials say a 16-year-old exchange student was critically injured when he fell into a tree well while skiing at Whitefish Mountain.
Chief Ben Devall says his agency was called at around 11 a.m. Wednesday and took the boy to Kalispell Regional Medical Center about two hours later.
Hospital Vice President Jim Oliverson says the boy was listed in critical condition Thursday.
Flathead County Sheriff’s Detective Dave Leib said he was called to the ski area in his role as coroner because the teenager initially did not have a pulse. The skier who found the boy pulled him from the tree well and performed CPR.
Leib says the boy was living with a Columbia Falls family, but he did not know what country he was from.