My ski partner was ascending the through the upper choke in Coalpit #4 when a dry, fast moving, sizable sluff came down from above (the snow was moving quickly and with enough mass to make some noise). He was carried for about 6' feet before self arresting. He received a mouthful of snow and had the disconcerting experience of snow rushing over his head as he arrested. The slide continued down for several hundred more feet and stopped above the lower choke. At that point we quickly turned around, so I don't know where the slide started and how long it ran in total. There was some wind blowing snow around in the rocks and trees near Perla Peak, so we theorize that some snow dropping from a tree may have triggered a small sluff in the rocks, which then was lucky enough to find more new snow to entrain. Up until that point, we had only seen evidence of a natural sluffs and soft slabs from during yesterday's storm, and the new snow was around 4-6" deep and right side up. It was 9:30 am and still cold, so day time heating was most like not a factor.

The angle where Will was caught was around 38 degrees, but we think the sluff likely started in steeper terrain on Perla Peak.