Avalanche Warning Instead of Advertising

Austria is experiencing its deadliest avalanche season in recent years. Despite existing warning signs and slope closures, serious accidents continue to occur. Often because the risks are underestimated and traditional warning systems lose their effectiveness through constant exposure.

The Diedamskopf ski region has now responded by launching a new digital safety initiative: Avalanche Alerts. The new system repurposes existing online advertising infrastructure for public safety. Instead of commercial ads, people in alpine areas automatically receive context-based avalanche warnings directly on their smartphones – without an app, registration, or prior activation and fully GDPR-compliant.

To make this possible, the terrain is divided into digital safety zones based on current avalanche bulletins, topographical terrain analysis, and the extensive experience of local alpine experts and slope safety teams. If a smartphone enters a high-risk zone, the specially developed Anti-Avalanche Ads platform can deliver location-specific warning messages in real time. The goal is not only to warn people in dangerous situations, but also to discourage repeated access to closed or avalanche-prone slopes – a behavior that occurs particularly frequently after an initial descent without incident.

Avalanche Alerts is designed for winter sports enthusiasts within ski resorts as well as backcountry skiers and tourers in open alpine terrain. Following a two-month testing phase, the initiative was rolled out across the entire ski area at the end of February.

The project was supported by ScreenOnDemand, Demner, Merlicek & Bergmann / DMB., and Media1. Avalanche Alerts was developed as an open-source system and can be adopted by mountain regions worldwide. “Avalanche safety should never be a competitive advantage,” says Stefan Lucchini, MSc, Managing Director of Diedamskopf. “If a system helps reach people earlier, it should be accessible to everyone.”