Fresh snow in mountains raises avalanche risk

File photo of avalanche warning (CTV News)

All that snow hitting the mountains is raising the risk of avalanches.

Avalanche Canada said 40 new centimetres of snow overnight has bumped the avalanche danger in the Elk Valley to high.

Officials say natural and human-triggered avalanches are likely. Travel in certain areas is not recommended.

The snow slide risk for the rest of East Kootenay is listed as considerable.

Meanwhile, Banff National Park also issued an update on its X feed late Friday afternoon.

"The avalanche danger is considerable through the weekend," @BanffNP posted, "with tricky conditions as a dense slab of freshly settled snow bonds poorly to the Dec. 2 surface hoar layer & a weak base, making it easy to trigger avalanches."

Cautious travel is advised as riders could trigger storm slab avalanches.