The skier said that they observed “collapsing” as they began to ski, a sign of snow pack instability but didn’t see any other slides on the way up the bootpack, which proceeds uphill to the looker's right of Lower and Upper Exhibition.

“We took the cat track out after the slide and observed several skier triggered and natural slides on the upper mountain,” the skier wrote.

Snow King’s ski patrol was doing avalanche mitigation throughout the day Friday, preparing the upper mountain to open Saturday and responding to high avalanche danger created by the storm that blew through Thursday and Friday.

Snow King General Manager Ryan Stanley said Saturday morning that the skier caught in the slide Friday evening was traveling in a closed area. He did not have information about the skier’s condition.

“We’ve been putting some social media messages out for the past couple days to be careful,” Stanley said. “We’re not the police, but we’re discouraging people from skiing the high risk avalanche terrain on the upper mountain.”

For the past week, the Cougar lift has been the only lift open on Snow King.

The risk profile should change when avalanche control work on the upper mountain finishes, those areas open and skiers begin compacting steeper, riskier slopes, Stanley said.

“Once it’s open it should be a whole different story,” he said. “When they do open it, it’ll be good to go.”

The resort still intends to open the upper mountain Saturday, although that will be delayed while avalanche mitigation work continues.

Snow King’s ski patrol reported a number of other slides elsewhere on the mountain Friday after avalanche mitigation work. Eight inches of snow fell on the mountain as a result of the Thursday storm.

“Collapsing and cracking were common,” ski patrollers wrote in a Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center observation. “Significant wind loading occurred. A large number of avalanches were triggered.”

Some of the slides were triggered on avalanche paths that let loose the previous week. Others broke along the ridge where wind loading occurred. Some broke above the new road cut, installed during Snow King’s recent expansion work.

“Road cuts particularly above the Way Home road triggered easily,” patrollers wrote. “More surprising were mid slope pockets that pulled out.”

Stanley didn’t think the new cut impacted avalanche risk.

“It’s just standard if you have a steep slope,” Stanley said, adding that mitigation work had specifically been done above the cut.

The Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center raised the avalanche danger to “high” in the Teton backcountry Friday after the same storm dropped between 10 and 20 inches of snow in the western mountains.

On Saturday, the center dropped the danger to “considerable,” though significant avalanche hazard exists in the backcountry.

“Dangerous avalanche conditions exist,” avalanche forecasters wrote. “The most recent storm cycle has buried weak snow 2-4 feet deep on all aspects at the upper elevations. Cautious route finding and conservative decision making are essential for safe travel in the mountains today.”

Read the full avalanche report at BridgerTetonAvalancheCenter.org before venturing out into the mountains.