Aspen
Quick reportDylan Craaybeek · Feb 19, 2026 · Aspen
Weather
Relatively warm and strong west to northwest winds with broken sky.
Snowpack
Around a foot of new snow fell in this area, difficult to tell as the winds transported so much of the new snow, but this wind-drifted new snow has developed into a 4F to 1F hard (on the hand hardness scale) slab resting on top of a very concerning and poor snowpack structure. Measured 1.1 inches of SWE in the new snow near the summit of Williams Peak. The rest of the snowpack is composed of multiple weak layers of very well-developed facets that likely will remain a concern until spring melt-freeze cycles. Extended column tests (ECTs) had a combination of non-propagating failures on the uppermost facet layer and propagating failures on at least two other, deeper, weak layers with less than 10 taps consistently.
Avalanche
Barely large enough to call an avalanche, but remotely triggered several cornices from below and about 20-30 feet away.