The pilot reported that, during an uphill takeoff into ascending terrain, about 4,000 ft down the 6,000 ft runway and at 80 knots, he rotated the airplane and stayed in ground effect to gain airspeed. He began pulling back to establish a climb, but the stall warning horn chirped, so he reduced the pitch attitude. He "constantly attempted" to pitch up until he heard the stall horn. At the end of the runway, he retracted the landing gear, but it did not affect performance. He reported that he knew the airplane had attained a positive climb rate but did not know the specific value. He then saw that the airplane was going to strike a tree, so he pulled back hard, but the airplane struck the tree and then impacted terrain.

The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing.

The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.

The automated weather observation station located on the airport reported that, about 9 minutes after the accident, the wind was calm, temperature 10°C (50°F), dew point -16°C (3°F), and altimeter 30.41" Hg. The airplane departed on runway 18.

The airport elevation was about 6,691 ft mean sea level (msl). Runway 18 was 6,000 ft by 100 ft with a 1.0% up gradient. The calculated density altitude was 7,128 ft. The calculated takeoff distance with flaps up was 2,442 ft and the takeoff distance over a 50 ft obstacle was 4,440 ft. The calculated rate of climb was 670 ft/min.

The airplane was equipped with additional tip tanks per a supplemental type certificate, which increased the maximum gross weight to 3,833 pounds. The pilot reported that the weight at the time of the accident was 3,797 pounds with a center of gravity of 80.7", near the forward center of gravity limit.

The pilot added that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector estimated that the tree was 35 to 40 ft tall. The FAA inspector provided an on-scene picture which included an elevation and latitude/longitude coordinates for the accident site. The elevation was 6,716 ft msl and, based on the coordinates, about 0.4 miles from the end of the runway.