Hikers Watch Rockfall in Sawtooth Mountains During Idaho Earthquake

Scott Forsyth was on a hiking trip with his son and five friends in central Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains when an earthquake prompted a rockfall on August 7.

Forsyth and his hiking crew were walking the perimeter of Baron Lake when they felt the ground beneath them start to move, causing rocks to fall from the mountains. “I felt it under my feet, I jumped up, I started recording,” Forsyth says as he captures the rising dust from the rockfall.

One of Forsyth’s friends can be heard shouting, “smoothie is gone,” referring to the Baron Spire, which used to be referred to as “Old Smoothie.”

Forsyth and his group can be heard discussing how just a few hours ago, they were hiking in the ridge that was covered in rocks and dust from the quake, saying they would have been killed had they been there during the incident.

Reports said the earthquake was likely an aftershock from an earlier quake that took place in Idaho on March 31. Credit: Scott Forsyth via Storyful