Jackson, WY – An avalanche in Wyoming’s Teton Mountains seriously injured a backcountry skier on Sunday.

Scott Dixon, 32, of Teton Valley, Idaho, suffered a possible fractured hip in the slide, which occurred in the Mayonnaise Couloir on 10,741-foot Jackson Peak in the Gros Ventre Mountains, east of the town of Jackson which it overlooks and for which it is named. He was accompanied by three other backcountry skiers when the hard slab avalanche was triggered by one of Dixon’s companions at approximately 4:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon on a northwest-facing 41 to 45-degree slope.

The victim was caught and carried but not buried by the avalanche, which stripped the early season snowpack from the chute to reveal large, jagged rocks beneath.

“Due to the terrain and conditions this could have easily been a fatality,” the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center confirms.

According the Avalanche Center, other skiers had descended the Mayonnaise Couloir on Saturday without incident. After substantial early season snows, persistent high pressure across northwestern Wyoming has formed a weak facet layer in the snowpack.

Dixon was airlifted to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, where he is being treated for his injuries.