MT. BACHELOR — The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office identified the man who died Tuesday, March 5, at Mt. Bachelor ski area as Robert Douglas Harrington, 58, of Bend.

Harrington suffocated after falling into a tree well, according to a joint investigation by the sheriff’s office and the Deschutes County Medical Examiner. He is the fifth person to die in a tree well at Mt. Bachelor since 2018.

Tree wells — which are more common in ungroomed areas of ski slopes — are hidden cavities of deep snow that form when low-hanging branches block snowflakes from compacting in the space around tree trunks. Skiers who venture close to trees can fall into the soft snow, usually headfirst, and quickly suffocate, just like drowning in water. At Mt. Bachelor, patches of younger and shorter trees where the lower branches sit below the snow pose the greatest risk.

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John Merriman, the CEO and president of Mt. Bachelor ski area, stated the company would not comment on Harrington’s death beyond an initial statement, which noted only that a man was “transported via snowmobile to the West Village Patrol room where he was pronounced deceased at 3:12 p.m.” The sheriff’s office, however, was able to provide greater detail about the events leading up to Harrington’s death.

Harrington was skiing alone when the incident happened in the area west of the Northwest chairlift. He was an avid skier and had taken safety precautions, such as wearing a helmet. Approximately 30 minutes later, another person on the mountain discovered Harrington, who was unresponsive, and performed CPR before Mt. Bachelor employees arrived. Harrington’s helmet was not damaged, and his injuries were consistent with snow immersion suffocation, the sheriff’s office said.

The last tree well-fatality at Mt. Bachelor was on Dec. 31, 2021, when emergency personnel transported 28-year-old Birkan Uzun of Seattle to St. Charles Bend, where he later died. In 2019, Kenneth Brundidge, 53, died in a tree well in the same western area where Harrington was found, and in 2018, Nicole Panet-Raymond, 19, of Portland, and Alfonso Braun, 24, of Bend, were killed on the same day in separate tree-well incidents.

It is unlikely Mt. Bachelor, or its parent company, Powdr Corp., will be held liable for Harrington’s death. In 2022, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 4076 stating that “an owner of the land is not liable in contract or tort for any personal injury, death or property damage that arises out of the use of the land for recreational purposes.”

A precedent set in a wrongful death lawsuit brought forward by the families of Panet-Raymond and Braun, where a jury ruled in favor of Mt. Bachelor and Powdr Corp., also bolsters Mt. Bachelor in the event of any lawsuits that might result from this incident.

Nevertheless, the ski area knows Mount Bachelor poses an elevated risk of tree-well injuries.

In an interview with The Bulletin on Jan. 12, Robbie Spafford, assistant patrol director, stated that this year, the resort’s ambassadors — volunteers who disseminate safety information among other tasks — “are talking for the very first time with guests about the tree well hazard we have here at the mountain. We have signage at the tops of our lifts that talk about it. The marketing team has been putting out a bunch of information to relay to our guests recently because of this hazard as it’s been growing.”

Tree well survival story

Tree well survival story

Three Rivers man saves woman after she falls into tree well on Mt. Bachelor

When questioned by The Bulletin, Merriman would not elaborate on what cautionary information was available around the Northwest lift on Tuesday and directed The Bulletin to the area’s safety website. It has this to say about tree-well hazards: “If you decide to explore (ungroomed areas), you are voluntarily accepting the risk of a deep snow immersion accident. The most effective way to avoid this danger is to always ski or ride with a buddy in sight.”