At 13:42 07 November 2015, son_of_flubber wrote:

If I were in Chris's situation, my first thought would be to stay in the
glider until it came to rest in the trees. I'd deploy my PLB while I was
waiting to descend (hoping to get a rescue call out before I lost
satellite
contact in the dense trees), make a Mayday radio call, and tighten my
shoulder straps.

I might have a few seconds to pull back the stick, slow down and stall
into the trees.


Many years ago I was unfortunate to witness a fatal accident - a (metal)
glider spun in on finals and went into thick pine trees. When we got there
the glider was hung in the trees without major damage about 6-10ft up,
unfortunately the pilot had been struck on the head by a tree branch that
came through the canopy and did not survive. Very sad as if that branch had
missed him it looked like he would have walked away.

So something to think about - a stalled in landing might be better, but
what happens after you hit the tops is very unpredictable.