Avalanche: Huntington Canyon Mile 30.5 East facing

This avalanche released at around 8pm or a little later.

This avalanche is interesting because it was most likely triggered by elk. Many elk tracks have been seen in the starting zones of the avalanche paths near The Forks of the Huntington. Also, there was no other significant weather event at the time of the avalanche. No recent new snow load, no heavy snowfall, no significant wind, no rapidly warming temperatures or sun, no rain.

The snowpack structure also supports the likelihood that this was elk triggered. I was in Huntington Canyon the previous day and identified the poor snowpack structure with layers of faceted snow buried deep in the snowpack. While doing fieldwork, my partner and I experienced a number of "collapses" of the snowpack where it made a loud "whoomping" noise underfoot. This is to be expected with buried faceted snow. We also had test results where the weak layers were failing easily. The lower slide paths in the canyon near Blue Cut down into Avalanche Alley are holding even weaker snow than is shown in the video below.