The avalanche risk in the alpine areas of the North Columbia-Cariboo mountains will remain high through to at least Wednesday, according to the Canadian Avalanche Centre (CAC).
The rating, issued Sunday night, means avalanche conditions are "very dangerous" and travel in those areas is not recommended because natural avalanches are likely and human-triggered avalanches are very likely.
It's just one level less than the "extreme" level, where the CAC recommends the area be avoided entirely and because natural and human triggered avalanches are certain.
The high rating is also in effect at treeline where it is expected to decline to "considerable" by Wednesday, the same rating given to areas below the treeline.
On Friday, the CAC issued a special warning that included the Columbia Mountains from near Prince George to the U.S. border. Just hours later, a 33-year-old Steven Burke Hall of Birchcliff, Alta. was killed in an avalanche Sparwood in southeast B.C.
Hall was among a party of six snowmobilers, according to the B.C. Coroner's Service. Three of them stopped for lunch while Hall and two others continued to ride uphill before the slide struck.
The avalanche came within hours of the Canadian Avalanche Centre issuing a warning that weak layers of snow presented a danger of large slides across much of southern B.C.
Friday's fatality is the second avalanche-related death in B.C. inside of a week.
A 44-year-old man from Squamish died last Tuesday after he and four other snowmobilers got caught in a snowslide near Whistler.
- with files from Canadian Press
