Vail & Summit County
Quick reportAndrew McWilliams, Jason Konigsberg · Feb 20, 2026 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Obscured skies. Light to moderate snowfall with light to calm winds. The temperature was in the teens.
Snowpack
There was about 30 to 40cm of new snow near treeline at about 11,500 feet, where we dug most of our snowpits. In sheltered areas, the new snow was capping a generally weak snowpack, although there were some layers of denser snow and crusts within it. We got one propagating result in an Extended Column Test (ECT) on a layer of weak facets buried around February 11. Otherwise, we saw ECTs with no results or non-propagating at the same interface. A Propagation Saw Test (PST) on this layer had a slab fracture result, confirming that you need the thick, continuous, dense slab to trigger slides. That slab was present just a few hundred vertical feet away from the sheltered test slopes where we dug below Elliot Ridge - no surprise given recent winds and snow totals. The large avalanche we saw below the ridge mostly broke on a layer of facets likely from late January. There were small areas of the bed surface that broke at the February 11 facet layer, but the majority of the slide stepped down.
Avalanche
With poor visibility, it was hard to estimate the exact depth and average width, but from what we could see, it was over 200 yards wide and averaged 2 to 3 feet deep, with the deepest part about 10 feet deep. A couple parts of the crown looked like cornices had fallen onto the slope, and these may have been separate slides, but I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing was connected.