The families of a snowboarder and a skier who died on the same day in separate incidents after falling into tree wells and suffocating on Mt. Bachelor are suing the Central Oregon ski resort for $15 million each.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Deschutes County Circuit Court, faults the Central Oregon ski resort for allegedly failing to close off the areas of the mountain where the snowboarder and the skier fell, failing to mark off the tree wells with rope or poles and failing to warn snow enthusiasts in person that there was a danger given three weeks of recent heavy snow.

Nicole Panet-Raymond (Courtesy of Panet-Raymond family)

Nicole Panet-Raymond, 19, was a sophomore at the University of Oregon in Eugene but was originally from Portland. She had been skiing since she was 3, and had attended Rieke Elementary School in Southwest Portland and St. Mary’s Academy in downtown, her father said.

Alfonso Braun, 24, was from Bend -- an only child and engaged, said the attorney for his estate.

“That tells you how dangerous it was that two people died in one day,” said Portland attorney Dan Dziuba, who is representing the estates of both of the deceased. Panet-Raymond and Braun didn’t know each other, weren’t recreating together and died on different parts of the mountain.

Alfonso Braun (Family photo)

John McLeod, president and general manager of Mt. Bachelor, offered this statement Friday:

“These type of incidents caused by hazards naturally present in the mountain environment are thankfully rare. Our hearts and deepest condolences go out to the affected families and friends.

“The safety of our employees and guests is our number one priority. For information about tree wells and safe skiing in the trees, please visit: http://www.deepsnowsafety.org/. To learn about industry skiing and snowboarding safety and statistics, visit http://www.nsaa.org/press/industry-stats/.”

The lawsuit says both Panet-Raymond and Braun were traveling down the mountain in areas open to resort patrons, and that the tree wells were hidden by snow.

Tree wells pose a danger because underneath a top covering of snow, the branches of trees allow large pockets of air to form. When skiers or snowboarders fall in, they can become trapped head-first. As they struggle to get out, they can become entombed in snow as the snow packs in around them.

The tragedies unfolded on the morning of March 2, 2018. At about noon, other people on the mountain reportedly found Braun under 6 feet of snow in the West Bowls, an expert-level area. He had been skiing with a buddy, but they had lost sight of each other.

Then at about 3:30 p.m., Panet-Raymond was reported missing. Upon hearing the news, her distressed family loaded up the car with ski gear, helmets with lights on them and shovels. They started driving from Portland to the mountain in an effort to aid in the search.

Searchers found her body at about 8:30 p.m., before her family arrived. She was under 6 feet of snow near the White Bark run, an intermediate ski area.

“Nicole was just a short way from the lift,” Dziuba said. “They (Panet-Raymond and Braun) were both inbounds in the area where the ski resort would expect them to be. The resort knows people like to ski in the powder and that’s in the trees, and that’s where the tree wells are.”

In a January 2019 story, The Bulletin quoted a ski resort representative as saying that the resort had planned to increase public education about the dangers of tree wells going into the 2017-18 season, but many of the materials hadn’t arrived or been put to use when Braun and Panet-Raymond died. Before their deaths, the resort had ordered 18-by-24 inch signs to warn patrons about the danger of snow suffocation, then installed 20 of them around the ski area after their deaths, the Bend newspaper reported.

The professionally made signs replaced handmade ones, according to The Bulletin.

In February 2019, two men died elsewhere in Oregon -- a 42-year-old man at Timberline Lodge, and a 23-year-old ski patrol member at Mt. Ashland.

In March 2019, nearly one year to the day Braun and Panet-Raymond died, another skier died on Mt. Bachelor after getting stuck in a tree well. Kenneth Brundidge was a 53-year-old Oregon City resident and an experienced skier, according to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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