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Salt_Market_6989 t1_jegnv0k wrote

How deep are these Wells ? And there must be something hard to fall onto to cause death .

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Roguecop OP t1_jegoagk wrote

Suffocation is number one cause it says. People fall in get buried and can't dig themselves out.

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Salt_Market_6989 t1_jegou3x wrote

Thanks, I see...

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AliasNefertiti t1_jegtwfl wrote

checkout the video of a skier saving a snowboarder who ended up in a tree well. It is posted in this thread (timing was after your question).

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Affectionate-Depth66 t1_jegupra wrote

Where I snowboard tree wells can be more then 12 feet deep and some years deeper. Part of the danger is that typically there is some sort of collision with the tree which then sheds it’s snow load on top of the rider. Imagine going head first for a dozen or more feet and as the walls of the well collapse the tree release the all the snow from it’s branches. I have done it once at it is scarier than I can describe. There you are upside down and buried. You can have all the safety equipment with you but you can’t move much or access your pack. The consolidated snow doesn’t get hard like in an avalanche so you can move a little. The key is not to panic.

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majorbummer6 t1_jegw6l3 wrote

Im literally panicking reading this.

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sirfuzzitoes t1_jeh22xg wrote

It's ok, I'm here to dig you out. Do your best to catch your breath.

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MegaKetaWook t1_jeh1a63 wrote

You're good. I ski regularly in Colorado and they arent as big of an issue as they can be made out to be. Yes, they are absolutely around the mountain but not everywhere. Large snowfalls are more likely to cause them, and you need to be in the glades to find one.

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chanlion t1_jegzidw wrote

Depends on the weather really, I've seen 3-4 meter wells.

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