North Columbia

Fresh snow with cold weather is offering excellent riding, but it's critical to approach avalanche terrain cautiously because large storm slabs are still possible.

Moderate - Due to the number of field observations

MONDAY: Isolated flurries with sunny breaks, moderate northwest wind, alpine temperatures around -10 C.TUESDAY: Mix of sun and cloud, light northwest wind, alpine temperatures warming to -5 C.WEDNESDAY: Sunny, light wind, inversion forming with alpine temperatures possibly reaching above 0 C.

On Saturday, there were numerous reports of natural storm slab avalanches in the size 1-2 range, but no human-triggered activity was reported. Explosive control in the Monashees produced a size 3 avalanche on a wind-loaded northeast ridge crest that scoured down to a late November crust.

Snow from last week's storms is settling and getting redistributed by northwest winds. Roughly 30-70 cm of recent snow sits above various crusts from the warm weather in late November. Reports suggest the snow is bonding to the crusts so far, but there's potential for this layer to develop into a bigger problem in the near-future. Snow depths decrease rapidly below treeline, where the primary hazards are rocks, stumps, and open creeks.