Teen suffers skiing accident

A 16-year-old foreign exchange student from Germany was clinging to life Thursday after he was found unconscious Wednesday in a tree well at Whitefish Mountain Resort.

The youth, who attends Columbia Falls High School, was found at about 11 a.m. when two skiers saw skis sticking out above the snow near the T-Bar 2 surface lift. They dug the boy out and contacted Ski Patrol using a cellular phone, according to resort spokesman Donnie Clapp.

A licensed nurse who was skiing in the area performed cardio-pulmonary rescuscitation until Ski Patrol arrived and began treating him with a portable automated external defibrillator, Clapp said.

It was not until after the boy was transported to a North Valley Hospital clinic at the base of the mountain that a pulse was found, according to Clapp.

He was then taken to the Kalispell Regional Medical Center by ambulance. Hospital spokesman Jim Oliverson said the boy was in the hospital’s Critical Care Unit on Thursday afternoon.

His name had not been released.

The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office sent a coroner to the area because the youth initially was believed to be dead.

It’s not known how long the boy had been trapped in the tree well, a pocket of loose snow that forms around the trunk of a tree. It’s also not known if he was alone or skiing with others, Clapp said.

Columbia Falls High School Principal Alan Robbins said counselors and some staffers were called to the school Thursday to assist students who knew the boy.

The teen began attending school in September and ran cross country during the fall, Robbins said. About 29 students had visited the school after hearing about the boy’s condition Thursday, he said.

“He’s a nice kid, a very nice kid,” Robbins said.