SnowvyHyper-local by design
Where slope detail is built, terrain is split into virtual slopes by elevation, aspect, steepness and forest. Each one gets its own hour-by-hour snowpack, so north and south, ridge and trees, tell different stories.
Backcountry skiing & splitboarding
Snow, and why.
Snowvy shows the modelled snow on a slope and tells you in plain, dated words how it got that way: which storm buried which layer, where the wind loaded it, when it melted and refroze. Slope detail exists for a growing list of places. Elsewhere you get a regional estimate, labelled as one.
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Modelled, not an avalanche forecast. Snowvy explains the snowpack; it never says a slope is safe. Read your regional avalanche bulletin and make your own decisions.
15 FebNew snow · storm layer
11 FebSnowfall · partly wind-deposited
5 FebSnowfall · buried the layer below
~1 FebSurface hoar · clear, calm nights
JanOlder snowpack
About 80 cm down lies the layer buried on 5 Feb: surface hoar that grew on the snow surface during clear, calm nights around 1 Feb. It is now covered by about 80 cm of snow (snowfalls on 5, 11 and 15 Feb), partly wind-deposited. 5 of 6 structural warning signs are present.
What you get
Conditions you can read, not just a colour.
Most mountain maps describe the ground: how steep it is, which way it faces, how high it goes. Snowvy keeps all of that and adds what the snow on that ground is doing, and how it got there.
A plain reason with dates
Tap a slope and read what happened: the warm spell, the cold nights, the storm that laid fresh snow over an icy crust. Every number in the sentence comes from recorded weather.
A 3D globe built for snow
Snowvy draws its own 3D globe with real terrain, so you can fly from your local hill to Hokkaidō or the Andes and see runs, lifts and ski touring routes from 12,384 ski areas in place.
Honest by default
A model that tells you what it isn't.
Avalanche bulletins come from trained forecasters with field observations. Snowvy is something else: a physical snowpack model that explains itself. It is context for your planning, never a gate that says go.
- No danger levels and no green lights. Snowvy never says terrain is safe.
- No invented live data. No lift status or resort snow reports, because no open source exists.
- Visible gaps. If a ski area's model isn't built yet, the app says so instead of borrowing a neighbour's.
- Traceable text. Explanations are filled in from recorded weather, not written freely by AI.
Coverage
Slope detail where it is built, a regional estimate elsewhere.
Slope detail exists for a growing list of places, ski areas and touring zones. Elsewhere Snowvy shows a regional estimate, in cells about 25 km across, or says that nothing is built there yet. Each place carries its label, so you know which one you are reading.
12,384ski areas on the globe, with elevation, runs and lifts
30 mterrain cells, grouped into virtual slopes where slope detail is built
Hourlysnowpack physics per modelled slope: snowfall, wind, melt, refreeze, surface hoar
FAQ
Questions, answered plainly.
Is Snowvy an avalanche forecast?
No. Snowvy models the snowpack and explains how it formed. It does not issue danger levels, it does not run stability tests and it never says a slope is safe. Use it alongside your regional avalanche bulletin, your own observations and proper training, never instead of them.
Where does it work?
Slope detail, the modelled snow on a single slope with its reason, exists for a growing list of places: ski areas and touring zones, built one at a time. Elsewhere Snowvy shows a regional estimate in cells about 25 km across, labelled as one and never drawn on single slopes, or says that nothing is built there yet. The 3D globe carries 12,384 ski areas with their runs and lifts. The app labels each place, so you can see which of these you are looking at.
What does “hyper-local” mean here?
The terrain is split into virtual slopes: groups of 30 m cells that share an elevation band, aspect, steepness and forest cover. The snowpack is simulated hour by hour for each of them, so a steep north face at 2,400 m and a sunny forested slope at 1,600 m get different stories.
Where does the data come from?
Terrain from the Copernicus GLO-30 elevation model, forest cover from canopy height maps, weather from ECMWF open data (IFS forecasts, CC BY 4.0) and Open-Meteo, and ski areas, runs and lifts from OpenStreetMap via OpenSkiMap. The snowpack physics follow published research; the How it works page lists the papers.
Which devices?
Snowvy is being built for iPhone, Android and the web. Join the waitlist to hear when it opens.
Does it show lift status or resort snow reports?
No. There is no open source for lift status, opening dates or resort snow reports, so Snowvy does not show them. What it shows is modelled from weather and terrain, and it says so.
Who is Snowvy for?
People who already plan their own backcountry days: ski tourers, splitboarders and freeriders who read the avalanche bulletin and know how to use it. Snowvy adds the story of the snowpack to that planning. It does not replace avalanche training, and it will not tell anyone where to go.
What will it cost?
Pricing is not set yet, and the waitlist will hear first. One thing is decided: group features (sharing your location with your partners, check-ins), quick access to emergency numbers and the official avalanche bulletins will stay free, because nothing that matters for safety goes behind a paywall.
Hear when it opens.
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