Avalanche Canada says it has been a big day province wide and it has issued some high danger ratings as a result.

Kate Divine says the big story for them was that there was about 70 centimetres of snow overnight on the Coquihalla and it is not showing signs of slowing down. “The interior ranges, North and South Columbia, South Purcell, Kootenay boundary area saw like 20 cenitmetres, but may see another 20-40 by the end of the day today.”

Divine believes there’s the possibility for more closures today. “Especially as the snow continues to pile up, it’s going to be basically an ongoing avalanche cycle so there will be natural avalanches happening in the mountains all day today and possibly into tomorrow as well… Most areas of [the Kamloops region] are high avalanche hazard at all three elevations bands. So from mountain top to valley bottom basically.”

Divine says to be prepared by getting the gear including an avalanche transceiver, a shovel and a probe, go out and get the training and pay attention to the forecast.

(photo courtesy of Rocky Mtn District twitter)