Avatech, the Park City, Utah-based maker of proactive avalanche safety tools, launched an updated version of the Avanet app today. The redesigned app, available now through the iTunes store, incorporates route-tracking and observation-reporting functions, aiming to bring safety-information sharing to the masses.
Avanet’s desktop route-planning interface.
Last winter, Avatech debuted their SP1 smartprobe, which identifies snowpack layers using pressure sensors, alongside their pro-focused Avanet platform for snowpack data and avalanche observation reporting. The updated Avanet app launched today includes several functions to make it accessible to the everyday recreationist, including real-time observation sharing.
“The probe is definitely a big forward step with forecasters,” says Thomas Laasko, brand president of Avatech. “But the sharing of real-time information through the app is what really got the global community behind the program.” Avatech’s software is now being used in 34 countries.
According to today’s press release, the updated app allows users to upload snowpack observations with photos, videos and comments while viewing observations and alerts from others. The basic, free version of the app includes route-tracking and observation functions. Avanet Tour, available for $5 per month, offers additional route-planning features including a “terrain visualizer” that maps and filters terrain based on aspect and elevation. The feature-rich, guide and snow-safety-professional-focused Avanet Pro is available for $10 per month.
“Avanet could generate an influx of mountain observations from both recreationalists and snow professionals,” Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, said in today’s press release. “This will benefit individual backcountry users, and we are working together to create a seamless way for those observations to reach forecast centers such as CAIC that rely on observation data to create regional forecasts.”
Avanet’s mobile avalanche observation interface.
“We just want the forecast centers to have as much data as possible,” Laasko says. “There’s a lot of information out there. If we can make it easy for people to communicate, then we can hopefully make an impact on peoples’ decision and how aware they are out there.”
—
Find out more at avatech.com and check out the app in the iTunes store.
Related posts: