A backcountry skier who triggered an avalanche in a Whistler Cliffs snow chute near Interstate 70 and the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels was partially buried and injured in the snowslide on April 30. The skier triggered the avalanche near the Whistler Cliffs area south of Coon Hill in a snow chute — a steep and narrow gully on a mountainside between two rock walls — according to a field report from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. The snowslide gained speed and mass as it ran through the chute, catching the skier from behind, the report stated. Before the avalanche, the skier was descending an open area above the chute on the mountainside, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said.