Avalanche House.

Over Christmas and New Years break, 2003-2004, a family from Seattle, Washington, with some friends and family members, were staying in their log home located about 10 to 11 miles north of Fairfield, almost all the way up to Soldier Mountain Ski Area. It had snowed and rained hard for two weeks prior and the winds had come up and were blowing hard. The house, which was 26 years old at the time, was two stories and there was a large, garage building with a 2nd floor apartment above situated a little north east of the main house.

Due west of the house was situated a hill with a 38 degree slope that appears to be 200’ to maybe 250’ foot tall. (As it turns out, 38 degrees is the optimal angle for avalanches.) Between the main house and this hill was possibly 75 to 85 yards of flat land, with only a few young trees and just a couple older trees standing between the house and the hill.

Just the Fall before, the owners had installed a new pair of French doors in the Master Bedroom leading out onto the new 2 story deck, which looked directly at the 38 degree hill to the west.

On January 2nd the owners were down stairs in the main house sleeping in the Master Bedroom with family members in all the upstairs rooms as well as guests sleeping in the apartment over the garage. At a little before 1:30am, a 200’ wide and 10’ to 12’ tall avalanche broke loose from the hill to the west of the house, traveled in an slight north east direction and slammed into the south west corner of the house first, shattering all windows on the south, west, and north sides of the house, including the new pair of French doors. The first floor of the house instantly filled with snow, packed as tightly as if it had been concrete.

The family members sleeping on the 2nd floor awoke instantly as they felt the house rock and shutter. They ran to the stairs, only to find them completely filled-up into the 2nd floor with snow and therefore, completely impassable. They ran to the windows on the west side of the house and found the snow level to be even with the bottom of the 2nd floor windows. They smashed a window out and climbed out onto the snow and then circled the house to see if there was a way into the first floor. The house was virtually an island in a sea of snow. They began digging at the doors to try and open a way into the first floor and then also began digging down the stairwell to get down to the first floor.

By this time, the guests in the 2nd floor garage apartment had gotten out and had begun helping as well. The main house had apparently absorbed the lion’s share of the impact of the avalanche and the garage building was surrounded by snow, but had not experienced the force the main house did. The driveway was full of snow. The main doors to the garage were covered and inoperable. The cars in the driveway were completely covered making it impossible to drive and get help. Some of the guests and family worked at freeing a snow mobile and took it to get help. By the time they arrived at the nearest neighbor’s house, a full hour and a half had gone by.

It was 6:10 am when the Camas County Fire and Rescue finally retrieved the two bodies down stairs. Within the first hour, the guests and family had retrieved one dog, and the rescuers found the other dog safe. He had taken refuge in the fire place. He was safe from the packed snow and had air to breath through the flue of the fireplace. The snow had crashed through the French doors with such force, that more than likely, the two down stairs were killed instantly by the impact.

The house has sat unrepaired and virtually unchanged since the accident. All of the exterior debris from the avalanche has been cleaned up. The shattered and broken windows and doors have been boarded shut, but in all, the house looks easily repairable. It has been on the market a couple of times, but its history has kept it from selling. I would love to pick this house up, repair it and move in. It would be easy to build an avalanche wall between the house and the hill. There are several building here in Ketchum, out in Warm Springs that have incorporated concrete avalanche walls into the structure of the house. With our house in Oregon not selling yet, the chance of us buying it are pretty slim, but I can dream, can’t I?