It's so crowded in here

OP: *isn’t too concerned at first – when he can’t just pull himself free of the mud, he throws a grappling line around the nearest tree . . . unfortunately, the trunk SNAPS in half, bringing the whole top down on top of him without him budging a nanometer…huh…he tries another, larger tree, and wraps his other line around one of its neighbors, pulling with both powerful arms. The trees hold…but so does the mud. He might as well have been welded into place! Great. Well . . . maybe he can /dig/ his way out? He sets about trying to do just that.*