Avalanche: Eddie's High Nowhere

A party of 2 skiers and one snowboarder came over from Collins Gulch with the intent to drop into Eddies High Nowhere on the Greeley side of the mountain. These three folks were descending on a sub-ridge that separates Eddies High Nowhere from the next chute to skiers right. A party of two were putting in a skin track from the Albion basin and had ascended along a tree'd ridge to 9860' before pushing the skin track southward on a gradual ascent across Eddie's, beneath a large rock outcropping, then upward again across the next chute. The skinners were close but not quite to another large rock on the skiers right side of the chute when a soft slab released near the upper party and swept down upon them. The upper group was still on the ridge and had not begun to ride the chute when a fracture broke down along the ridge where they were slowly descending and also propagated out into the chute. None of the upper party was caught in the slide. The avalanche snow got a good start a few hundred feet above the skiers on the skin track below and the proverbial wall of snow was about 5-6' high as it swept them downward with some tumbling and partial burial as they dropped approximately 180 vertical feet. The slide continued down to the bench below. Each skier lost a ski pole and their sunglasses. Neither skier had a ski release. One skier sustained a knee injury but was able to descend on skis to the base. Both skiers were able to extricate themselves from the snow with help from the upper group and other skiers in the area. No shoveling was required. Alta Snow Safety was notified by phone from the site. The pictures show the entire slide and the approximate location of the riders at the time of the slide, a view looking up at the starting zone, and a picture looking up from the recovery spot.