CAIC

Details

Weather Description: Strong westerly winds raged throughout the day on 1/18 in Ophir, cross-loading the south-facing slopes above town and transporting a lot of snow within the valley. Consistent S1-S2 snowfall accompanied by these winds reduced visibility to less than 100feet at time in the morning.

Snowpack Description: A shallow and weak snowpack existed on the south-facing terrain above Ophir prior to this most recent storm. Several large natural avalanches ran just last week in similar terrain (Staatsburg Basin being a notably large natural slide). These slopes are general southerly in orientation and feature concave start zones that fill in quickly with W or SW winds.

Avalanche Description: Sometime between 10:30am and 11:20am on the morning of Wednesday, January 18th, 2023, a very large natural avalanche released in the West St. Louis slide path in the Ophir Valley. I arrived on the scene of the slide maybe 15 minutes after it occurred. An unaware motorist accidentally drove their car into the debris in front of me. The debris flowed across the road, across the Howard Fork of the river, and into private property, apparently damaging trucks and trailers. Estimated the debris to be maybe 10-15ft high on the road, and at least 150yards wide. The East St. Louis Path also ran naturally, but the debris did not make it to the road. SS-N-R3-D3 (?) Hard to code until we get eyes on the start zones of these slides...

Date

Location/Path

Elev

Asp

Type

Trig

SizeR

SizeD

2023/01/18

Ophir

>TL

N / U

D2.5