Alta, UT – An avalanche struck in-bounds on Monday morning at Utah’s Alta Ski Area, burying three skiers.

Alta spokesperson Connie Marshall confirms that at approximately 11:45 a.m. on Monday skiers triggered a slide in Spot Slot, high in Collins Gulch above the resort’s Sunspot run and the High Traverse.  The debris from the avalanche partially buried three skiers on the High Traverse below. All were dug out without injury.

Reports indicate that officers with the Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake were also on the scene. Alta officials closed the resort’s Collins chairlift following the incident.

The area where the avalanche occurred faces northwest at around 10,400 feet of elevation. Forecasters with the Utah Avalanche Center had rated the avalanche danger on such terrain as “high” on Monday morning, but the area where the incident took place is controlled by members of Alta Ski Patrol. Nine inches of new snow fell on the area on Sunday, primarily in the form of small pellets of graupel that delivered a remarkable 1.6 inches of water weight onto an already unstable early season snow pack. The road into Little Cottonwood Canyon, within which Alta resides, was closed early Monday morning for avalanche control by the Utah Department of Transportation.

A separate smaller snow slide on Saturday crossed the in-bounds and open cat track to Upper Big Dipper at Alta. No one was reported to have been trapped by that avalanche, and Alta officials closed the resort’s Supreme lift for the remainder of Saturday as a precaution.