Whitefish, MT – The German family of an exchange student has sued Montana’s Whitefish Mountain Resort over a tree well accident that killed their son.

Niclas Waeschle was 16 at the time of the Dec. 29, 2010 incident. He was skiing alone at near the resort’s T-Bar 2 when he fell head-first and suffocated in a tree well. Waeschle’s family traveled to Montana from their home in Germany before removing their son from life support after he was declared brain dead.

Waeschle, a season passholder at Whitefish, had been staying with a host family in nearby Columbia Falls, Mont. The lawsuit, filed on Christmas Eve, names the host family and the student exchange agency, World Experience, as co-defendants.

The complaint alleges gross negligence on the part of Whitefish Mountain Resort owner Winter Sports Inc. for not marking the area and warning of tree wells, which are deep pockets devoid of snow that are created by the overhanging branches of conifer trees.

“Tree well and deep snow immersion accidents such as this one occur in off-groomed, forested (off-piste) areas with deep, unconsolidated snow,” a statement issued by Whitefish Mountain Resort reads. “It is not reasonable to identify a particular tree among the tens of thousands within the resort boundary that has a dangerous tree well by sight.”

A separate cause of action listed in the complaint against the host family and World Experience contends that they were negligent “in safeguarding Niclas by exposing Niclas to unnecessary and unreasonably risky behavior such as permitting him to ski in inclement weather alone.”