Young skier dies after being found in tree well

A 16-year-old German student died Sunday morning, three days after he was found unconscious in a tree well while he was skiing at Whitefish Mountain Resort.

Niclas Waeschle of Ulm, Germany, was an exchange student at Columbia Falls High School.

A Flathead County Sheriff’s coroner was dispatched to Kalispell Regional Medical Center at about 10 a.m. Sunday.

His mother and brother who had flown in from Germany decided to remove Waeschle from life-support devices after his condition deteriorated, Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said Monday.

Waeschle was found at about 11 a.m. Thursday when two skiers noticed skis sticking out of the snow near a tree at the T-Bar 2 surface lift. They dug Waeschle out of the tree well and used a cell phone to call the resort’s Ski Patrol.

A licensed nurse who was in the area performed cardio-pulmonary rescuscitation until patrollers arrived and started treating him with a portable external defibrillator.

According to resort spokesman Donnie Clapp, Waschle had no pulse until after he had been transported to the North Valley Hospital Clinic at the base of the mountain. He was taken to Kalispell Regional Medical Center by ambulance and treated in the Critical Care Unit until his death Sunday.

Clapp said it was unclear how long Waeschle had been in the tree well, a pocket of loose snow that forms around the base of a tree.

Waeschle started attending Columbia Falls High School in September and he participated on the school’s cross-country team in the fall.

School administrators called in counselors and other staff members last week to assist students who knew Waeschle.

A memorial service for Waeschle has been planned for 7 p.m. today at St. Richard’s Catholic Church in Columbia Falls.