The weekend avalanche warnings have been lifted, but there’s still a concern in the North Columbia’s.

It’s currently the hotspot of human-triggered avalanche activity, with the risk of an avalanche considerable both in and below the treeline.

Forecaster Mark Bender says we’re dealing with a tricky, buried, weak layer of snow at the lower elevations.

“If people are planning on recreating up in the higher alpine terrain they actually have to travel through the lower elevations to get there,” he said. “Usually, it’s the opposite where the more dangerous conditions are in the higher elevations, but right now it’s the opposite. So, people should keep that in mind.”

It’s not unusual, he says, to see that kind of inversion.

“It’s just a matter of where this buried, weak layer formed,” added Bender. “It just happened to be at the lower elevations, and then when we got snow sitting on top of that, new snow that came to bury that just happened to at the treeline elevation and below treeline elevation.”

Conditions are a little better at the moment in other nearby ranges.

“Finding that buried weak layer in the lower elevations is much higher and that weak layer is much more prevalent in the North Columbia region than in the South Columbia’s and in the neighbouring regions to the north in the Cariboos,” said Bender.

“It still exists, but it’s not as widespread of a weak layer as what exists in the North Columbia’s.”

Bender is urging people to constantly check the forecasts if they plan to go into the backcountry as he expects these conditions to last through the week.