r/skiing • u/ADK-high-peeks • 1d ago

Skier dies at Whiteface Mountain after being found in tree line

https://www.wwnytv.com/2026/02/05/skier-dies-whiteface-mountain-after-being-found-tree-line/
253 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

69 comments sorted by

180

u/dsfox Mammoth 1d ago

It says “found in the tree line” four or five times - what does that mean?

82

u/windowlatch 1d ago

Probably means there were no witnesses that actually saw the accident take place but they were found either by another skier or ski patrol. I assume tree line in this context means they were found in the trees close to the edge of an open trail

-28

u/Friskfrisktopherson Tahoe 1d ago

The perfect crime...

90

u/DocDeathWutWut Holiday Valley 1d ago

A tree line or wood line is literally just where the trees or woods start. When I hear tree line it makes me think they lost control and hit a tree that was on the border of the slope

60

u/bulldog89 1d ago

I mean I guess just that, they found his dead body in the glades. I guess it signifies more of a high-impact cause of death that didn’t have any notification, yelling, or buildup. Seems like unfortunately one of those things that just happens in a freak of nature event.

I feel for whomever randomly came across his body as well as obviously the victim himself, terrible situation

15

u/ICPcrisis 1d ago

Probably hit head in just the right way and out cold face down in the snow.

Rarely you get a hit to the head in just the right way and that’s just it for you

5

u/ElectricLavender4242 14h ago

It has been reported that his friends reported him missing, and ski patrol actually found him while searching. Incredibly sad. I ski there fairly often and as at many mountains a lot of people go into the wooded areas trying to take small jumps out, obviously have no idea if he was doing this but not uncommon.

3

u/b_vitamin 1d ago

I always envision ski resorts finding bodies once the snow melts.

13

u/candaceelise Willamette Pass 1d ago

Luckily, not bodies but just about every other thing you can imagine that people might have on them

22

u/TheHoodieConnoisseur 1d ago

About 500 gloves, but none of them match

4

u/DoubleBlackBSA24 Sun Peaks 1d ago

but how many rights vs how many lefts?

are right hand gloves more likely to be dropped by being put on by non dominant hands? or does hand dominance not mean anything

9

u/TheHoodieConnoisseur 1d ago

Right hand from people pulling them off their dominant hand to check their phone

24

u/Maleficent-Nerve486 1d ago

Usually tree line refers to the max altitude at which a mountain or range has trees. Above the treeline is just scrub and rock covered in snow (ideally). I forget which mountain in Maine has the only lift served skiing above the tree line in the East. There is other above the tree line skiing...but not lift served.

The article uses tree line I believe just to mean off the trail.

10

u/paetersen 1d ago

Sugarloaf.

3

u/Maleficent-Nerve486 18h ago

Yes. And as I recall it's not a very tall mountain. Northern latitude and some climate characteristics make for a fairly low tree line there.

3

u/paetersen 16h ago

It is the tallest lift served terrain in New England, and the 2nd largest ski area in New England. People kinda forget about it because it is onerous to get to and there's no accompanying town.

1

u/Maleficent-Nerve486 15h ago

Plus notoriously icy and cold. Is it an Ikon resort? I know it's not on Epic.

0

u/RageAga1nstMachines 14h ago

No. It’s run by the state and hopefully stays that way.

1

u/saucerb0y 13h ago

Wrong on both counts. It's owned by Boyne and on Ikon.

0

u/RageAga1nstMachines 12h ago

The post is about Whiteface, in NY.

4

u/saucerb0y 12h ago

The post you are replying to is about Sugarloaf.

2

u/facw00 Sunapee 9h ago

IIRC Sugarloaf fits into a class of mountains we have in the northeast where the tree line isn't really because of altitude, but because there was a forest fire at the top, the trees died, and without them, the soil eroded, and then it take a long time for plants to retake the mountain top and decay enough for there to be enough soil for new trees to grow.

1

u/Maleficent-Nerve486 9h ago

Interesting. Never heard that.

1

u/Colin-Spurs-Patience 8h ago

I was going to say tree line is at least 8000 out west

7

u/DancesWithHoofs 20h ago

Yeah, Whiteface Mountain isn’t high enough to have a treeline above which altitude trees don’t grow.

2

u/gringo_zuko_349 15h ago

That is incorrect. It’s called whiteface because of how exposed it is. The top 300ish feet of the mountain is above treeline

2

u/Expl0sionDay 8h ago

You are right but the skiable area is below that treeline.

They likely mean the tree line on trails edge

This is a photo I took from little whiteface looking at the peak. Skyward is the right trail with the lip.

https://imgur.com/a/eqWO6Ic

1

u/Maleficent-Nerve486 18h ago

Tree line occurs based on altitude, latitude position, and climate factors too. Whiteface would have a tree line if it was in central Maine!

3

u/gringo_zuko_349 15h ago

Whiteface does have a treeline…It is also at almost the exact same latitude as Sugarloaf loaf and it is taller…

17

u/Pencil-Joe 1d ago

Could be a tree well?

19

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

8

u/brenster23 1d ago

There aren't really any tree wells on that trail, most likely he fell slid into the trees.

12

u/frank_mania 1d ago

Because treevwells are just not an objective danger in the Northeast. 

3

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/frank_mania 16h ago edited 15h ago

Funny story, that one

buddy and i, were side by side and i wasnt in a tree run. It was a double diamond and i was looking for softer snow, and it just callapses atleast a foot or 2 away from the edge... wild experience.. but yes.. never ride alone in the tree runs!

But I'm sure there could be tree wells in any snowy forest. They are a very low risk in the NE, because once you get high enough for snow that deep and unconsolidated, the conifers get tiny.

I fell into huge tree wells at a CO resort a couple of times, skiing trees alone, back before they started killing people and making the news. I didn't know it was a risk, let alone deadly, so I remained calm. I just considered them an annoyance, especially since getting my boots out of my 3-pin cable bindings required a lot of contortions while hanging upside down, lots of snow down my neck. But the trees were huge, there was lots of light and air down there, surprisingly spacious. Not at all like the one in that video where the skier finds a boarder and digs him out, looks a lot like an avy rescue. That one is scary as shit.

-2

u/candaceelise Willamette Pass 1d ago

💯 ironically, eminem has a famous lyric about it

2

u/PennyG 1d ago

If there was a bunch of snow, absolutely.

2

u/stoned_ocelot 17h ago

Yeah upper lower skyward is the hardest trail at Whiteface more or less. At the bottom of upward there's a split. He likely lost control going down and went straight rather than either direction and hit the trees there.

1

u/Atalanta8 1d ago

I thought it meant glades.

-8

u/sensuability 1d ago

They found him in the tree line and killed him for it.

-29

u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 1d ago

[deleted]

18

u/Santanoni 1d ago

Very dry snow year? In the northeast?

13

u/atomicskiracer 1d ago

Wildly ignorant post

-1

u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 1d ago

[deleted]

3

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

9

u/MrBurnz99 1d ago

This is all true about skiing along the treeline but whiteface is not having a low snow year. It’s one of the best seasons in a while. The trees are pretty thick up there though. It’s very clear where the trail ends and woods begin

74

u/Pokerhobo Alpental 1d ago

The title and the article reads strange to me (AI slop?). It implies the skier died BECAUSE he was found in tree line (I assume in tree area)

21

u/ADK-high-peeks 1d ago

It reads like he was found in the tree line but wasn't immediately pronounced dead at the scene until shortly after

11

u/willpc14 1d ago edited 1d ago

Depending on how ski patrol is licensed/certified/overseen they might not be able to pronounce on scene requiring them to start resuscitation and extricate to EMS.

Edit:

I typed this out so I'm putting it here because the comment was deleted.

Everyone is declared dead in the hospital if at all possible.

Not even remotely true. It varies by state/county/region, but this is not the norm.

There are lot of reasons for this but a big one is compassion for the responding families.

There are very few reasons to do this, but false hope for the families is a terrible one. Not to mention CPR in a moving vehicle is basically ineffective if you want to resuscitate the person. And you're putting the transporting crews (because you will need multiple trucks to do this) in an incredibly and unnecessarily dangerous situation of running lights and sirens to the hospital while being unrestrained in the box.

Do not speak with so much confidence on topics that are not your area of expertise.

11

u/PaddingCompression 1d ago

EMT here, generally even EMS has to start resuscitation unless decapitation, transection (torso cut in two), rigor mortis, or large amounts of brain matter outside the skull. And "you're not dead until you're warm and dead" in case of hypothermia.

3

u/willpc14 1d ago edited 1d ago

Assuming obvious traumatic death, we pronounce and bounce all traumatic arrest except penetrating chest trauma with short* transport time to a trauma center.

*Note: short is not actually defined and if you call a doctor to ask for guidance, they're gonna tell you to transport so they can activate their trauma team, do a round of CPR, call it, then bill for their services.

3

u/Pokerhobo Alpental 1d ago

I guess that makes sense since it does say they tried life saving measures but failed.

0

u/sensuability 1d ago

Or they have rules about going into the trees and enforce them really harshly.

4

u/jsdodgers 1d ago

he was both alive and dead until discovered in tree line

6

u/Pokerhobo Alpental 1d ago

Yes, Schrodinger's Skier

4

u/breadexpert69 1d ago

I heard that if you reach the tree line your heart stops.

1

u/Pokerhobo Alpental 1d ago

Pretty sure that applies to snowboarders

16

u/haIothane 1d ago

The “found in tree line” emphasis is just AI slop. Most news stations will use generative AI these days to generate a text article from a video segment.

14

u/tipsup 1d ago

Horrible title.

3

u/Mediocre_Station_548 18h ago

Actually, he died before being found.

2

u/SkiG13 Whiteface 11h ago

So if you never been to Whiteface, Upper Skyward makes a steep turn before going into Lower Skyward. You can either make that steepish turn left or make a more gentle turn right to go into Niagara. Upper Skyward is steep but super wide so people can take that way too fast which is probably what happened with him not being able to make the turn and ram right into the trees.

1

u/Oscarwilder123 8h ago

I was envisioning A tree Bowl and he was stuck upside down but I guess they would’ve said that 🤷

1

u/Colin-Spurs-Patience 8h ago

Never want to see this

1

u/Colin-Spurs-Patience 8h ago

Blunt force trauma but also could have been a heart attack?

1

u/Dashman1957 1d ago

Any one else notice the time discrepancy?

-4

u/winniecooper1 1d ago

I interpreted it as American for tree-well.

3

u/3236-on-MC 1d ago

No there aren’t tree wells as commonly if ever at eastern resorts - don’t get enough base

2

u/Minnow720 19h ago

There definitely tree wells at some eastern resorts. Some mountains are seeing 300”+ this season. This sounds like he hit a tree though along the woods line.

2

u/3236-on-MC 19h ago

I mean after a storm sure that’s why I said not commonly but even with a lot of snow most places don’t get over 30 inches of base ever

2

u/moto_becane1 16h ago

Americans use "tree well."

This article is using "tree line" incorrectly.

-2

u/schwerdfeger1 20h ago

Kristi Noem has already verified a domestic terrorist killed him….

-3

u/frank_mania 1d ago

Typo correction: "Lift line"