At approximately 9 a.m. this morning a friend and I were caught and carried in an avalanche in Days Fork (Lazy Days area). Neither of us were significantly harmed or buried in the slide. My friend was carried roughly 50 feet before getting hung up on a couple of trees. I was carried about 200', sometimes under the snow, sometimes on top of it into a gully where the avalanche came to rest and I mercifully was on top.

We were roughly 250' below the Cardiff Canyon - Days Fork ridge line when we were struck by the avalanche. I am assuming the avalanche originated from just below the ridge line. Visibility was too poor to tell for sure and we didn't stick around after the slide to get a look or take photos.

Moments prior to the slide that carried us we had decided to turn around after seeing two smaller natural avalanches on either side of the small lower angle (30°-32°) promince in the slope that we were standing on. Before that point we hadn't observed any natural avalanches but had noticed several indicators of instability including triggering shooting cracks while skinning across slopes roughly 35 degrees or steeper, small soft slab releases (roughly 5 feet across) and in general observing poor adherence of the new snow to the underlying crust. In short we ignored plenty of signs instability. We also observed increasingly heavy snow fall and winds.

As we skied away from where the avalanche deposited us we noticed more natural releases then we could count. It was as if the snow had reached a tipping point and everything began sloughing and sliding at about the same time as the avalanche that struck us.

I am very grateful the my friend and I escaped the ordeal unharmed and urge caution today in the backcountry as the new snow settles.