Aspen
Quick reportDylan Craaybeek, Brian Lazar · Feb 12, 2026 · Gunnison
Weather
Warm temperatures with mostly light winds and occasional moderate gusts from the southwest. Intermittent snowfall, mostly falling as graupel, and occasional windows of good visibility and blue sky in between being socked in the cloud with no visibility.
Snowpack
The new snow was wet below 9000 feet, and a notable amount of snow melted around 8500 feet and lower from rain along the valley floors. New snow heights above the rain line varied from about 8 inches or so below 10,000 feet and increased to about 12-16 inches of new snow along ridgelines with wind drifts about 2 feet deep. The new snow remained moist and relatively dense even at higher elevations, with density measurements ranging from 126 to 144 kg/m^3. The weak layer of concern, the February drought layer, is a layer of well-developed near-surface facets averaging around 1mm in size with some grains as big as 3mm and clear signs of striations and chains between faceted crystals. Layers lower in the snowpack are composed of mixed forms (rounds and facets) but mostly poorly bonded facets.
Avalanche
It was difficult to approach any steep slopes facing northwest through north to northeast without triggering a large avalanche from about 5 to 25 feet away. All the avalanches were failing on near-surface facets (FCsf) from the most recent drought that just got buried yesterday (February 11). Although it was very easy to trigger avalanches, the avalanches weren't propagating surprisingly wide or wrapping multiple terrain features; the widest avalanche was around 250 feet wide on a northeast-facing slope.