The snow on the Alps with a click
Winter sport practitioners, especially those who love to live the mountain in complete freedom like back-country skiers and snowshoe walkers, usually browse around the web to get complete information on the snow presence and meteo conditions. In fact knowing where the snow is, how much and the snow forecast for the following days may help the decision about a trail or a place to go, as well increase the awareness on safety.
To help the planning of an excursion, a new app is available on the market: Mysnowmaps. Born in Trentino (Italy) and winner of the prestigious Italian start-up contest EdisonPulse in 2015, Mysnowmaps is based on an innovative technology that combines meteorology, remote sensing and hydrology. The snow algorithm takes into account the meteorological variables and calculates the snow evolution (accumulation, compaction and melting) according to the topographic characteristics of the terrain (elevation, aspect). The estimates are then corrected with the actual snow measures, retrieved by the Avalanche Offices in the Alps thanks to the “Open Data”, and with the snow measures provided directly by the Community of users during their excursions.
The Portal allows to visualize the snow depth in each valley and slope through the use of “snow maps”, i.e. heat maps that report the information on the snow through a colored legenda. One may get the snow depth at a given date, the fresh snow fallen in the previous days and the predicted snow to fall in the following days. Differently from other Portals, the information is available on localities in the alpine territory, not only on the main ski resorts. Furthermore, the app allows the users to be proactive, by sharing the information on the excursion and the snow measures. The practitioners may then benefit from the reviews of the Community and the algorithm may improve its accuracy.
The new winter season is ready to start, thanks to the low temperatures and the snowfalls of the previous days. The practitioners may visualize snow information in a convenient way, also beyond the Italian Alps. Since this year, in fact, Mysnowmaps provides the information also in France, Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria and Slovenia. Furthermore, the Portal allows to visualize the presence of alpine huts and the meteo forecast.
The app is available for both Android and iOS and is totally free to download and to use in all functionalities. Many important brand in the outdoor sector are supporting the initiative, like Montura, La Sportiva, Pieps, Movement, Bioenergia, Polar and Cortina d’Ampezzo.