you’ve already tried, exactly the same thing I could come up with. The needle is impossible to part with, unless you ‘use it’. That’s not exactly escaping, but rather just forcing yourself awake.
I considered the possibility that you might need to leave items at the base of the painted trees, even the possibility of just leaving everything with the skeleton. That total asset abandonment method eluded me, that’s why I was so thankful for the tip about the trees instead.