Page 5 - Flathead Beacon // 1.8.13

FLATHEADBEACON.COM
JANUARY 8, 2014 | 5

NEWS

WORDS
••••
of the Week

AN UNSUNG HAZARD

AN INDEX OF
RECENT
NEWSMAKERS

POLAR VORTEX
Dense frigid air, known as a Three years later,
“polar vortex,” dropped into
lawsuit against
the United States bringing
cold, record breaking Whiteish Mountain
temperatures from Montana Resort seeks damages
to Alabama.
in fatal accident

SCHWEITZER
involving tree well

The former governor stirred
the 2016 presidential pot on
MSNBC Monday when he said By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Beacon
a race for the White House
would “ruin” his life, before Three years ago, a 16-year-old ex-
touting why he would be a change student from Germany was ski-
good chief executive.
ing by himself at Whiteish Mountain Re-
sort when he fell, pitched head irst into
a snow-packed tree well and sufocated.
The tragedy and the hazards of tree ski-
SWORN IN
ing were underscored again 10 days later
Public oicials across the by a nearly identical snow-immersion suf-
Flathead Valley were sworn focation, this time involving a 29-year-old
in, marking new eras on city snowboarder from Kalispell who was rid- Whiteish Mountain Resort. BEACON FILE PHOTO
councils throughout the area. ing only a few hundred yards away from
(STORY, PAGES 7 & 8)
where the high school student died when
he fell into a deep pit at the base of a tree. “I WANT TO BE CLEAR THAT THESE ARE FAIRLY LOW-RISK
Searchers found him inverted and uncon-
EVENTS. BUT THEY DO OCCUR, AND PEOPLE NEED TO BE
CUTS
scious, hung upside down by his board,
and he was pronounced dead later that AWARE OF THEM AND THEY NEED TO BE PREPARED.”
Lincoln County evening.
Commissioners voted to cut The unsung hazard of inbounds snow-
a justice of the peace and immersion sufocation (SIS), the peril of Dave Byrd, director of risk and regulatory afairs for the National Ski Areas Association
school superintendent in an which is often dwarfed by the domineering
efort to corral the county’s backcountry threat of avalanches, quickly
shrinking budget in 2014. rose to the fore of a national conversation er’s death in a tree well. But a Dec. 24 law- through the legal channels three years af-
(STORY, PAGE 12)
about ski area safety, responsibility and suit alleging gross negligence against the ter Niclas Waschle fell while skiing alone
risk, in part because the 2010-2011 ski sea- ski resort, as well as the host family of the near the T-bar 2 ski lift on Big Mountain.
AUGARE
son saw an unprecedented nine SIS fatali- German exchange student and the agency His mother, Patricia Birkhold-Waschle, fa-
ties nationwide, all involving tree wells that arranged for his visit, becomes one ther Raimund Waschle and brother Philip
Blackfeet tribal council — or, large concealed pockets of loose, un- of the irst — if not the irst — civil com- Waschle are listed as plaintifs in the law-
member and state senator packed snow that form around the bases plaints born of a SIS death.
suit, which seeks damages and compensa-
Shannon Augare announced of trees. The previous record-setting year The suit also raises other questions tion for their loss, as well as medical and
he would not run for
reelection to either post in was 2007-2008, when seven SIS deaths about the measure of risk a skier accepts other expenses.
2014.
occurred.
once seated on the chairlift.
The wrongful death lawsuit lists as
(STORY, PAGE 11)
Until last month, Whiteish Mountain The federal complaint, iled in U.S.
Resort had never faced litigation for a ski-
District Court in Missoula, makes its way
See Lawsuit PAGE 18

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