Create avalanche diagnoses and personal danger levels with LARA using modern algorithms and benefit today from numerous high-quality diagnoses from our active users! The tool for more safety in alpine terrain
Users’ assessment of their individual danger level or situation may differ from the official warnings issued by the avalanche warning services. Creating a personal danger level serves to verify the official avalanche danger level in the immediate area. Therefore, the information on the website or in the app is intended only as a guide and does not replace a personal assessment on site.
The Lara app can only be used after completing appropriate theoretical and practical training. This training can be conducted by us or by mountain guides trained in systematic snowpack diagnosis. However, the minimum requirement is a four-hour Online training offered on our website.
Green (vSSD & SSD)
Avalanche triggering unlikely
Yellow (vSSD & SSD)
Avalanche triggering only with large additional load
Red (vSSD & SSD)
Self-triggering of avalanches or with low additional load
Numbers 1 to 5
Personal assessment of the danger level in the observer’s vicinity
Green
Avalanche triggering unlikely
Red
Self-triggering of avalanches or with low additional load
Yellow
Avalanche triggering only with large additional load
With numbers
Personal assessment of the danger level in the observer’s vicinity
Green
Avalanche triggering unlikely
Red
Self-triggering of avalanches or with low additional load
Yellow
Avalanche triggering only with large additional load
With numbers
Personal assessment of the danger level in the observers’s vicinity
Our avalanche courses
Our avalanche courses provide you with a comprehensive understanding of avalanches and the knowledge required to use the Avalanche App. In our theoretical course, you’ll learn all the necessary basics about avalanches, such as their formation and types, which you can then put into practice in our practical on-site courses.
LARA offers you a wide range of functions and features that make your stay in the mountains safer.
Snow information
Collect and evaluate information about local snow quality and share your results with the LARA community.
Systematic snow cover diagnosis
Assess a single slope for avalanche danger. LARA uses the latest technology as well as proven methods such as the Systematic Snow Cover Diagnosis, developed by Georg Kronthaler, to evaluate the “small block test”!
Personal danger levels
With our expert tool, you can create a personal danger level based on your current situation. This allows you to assess the potential avalanche danger.
Offline availability
Poor network coverage in the field? No problem for LARA! Your offline completed diagnoses will be automatically saved and published as soon as you have internet access again.
Community
The LARA community consists of a diverse pool of avalanche experts, mountain guides, winter sports enthusiasts, and even beginners!
Training
Enjoy educational videos and other materials created by the father of the small block test and the Systematic Snow Cover Diagnosis. You can also learn how to use LARA independently, for example, by creating a practice diagnosis.
How does LARA work?
Since LARA covers a wide range of knowledge, we have divided LARA’s functionalities into three areas.
Precise data
LARA systematically guides you to collect precise information about snow quality, snow properties, and weak layers directly on site. This information forms the initial basis for the evaluation of the small block test.
Internationally recognized
With the internationally recognized and verified small block test and the (simplified) Systematischen Schneedeckendiagnose (systematic snow cover diagnosis) developed by Georg Kronthaler as the basis for our algorithms, we offer you an optimal tool to evaluate the small block test.
community
Together we are strong—that’s what we stand for at LARA, and this is reflected in our community. All collected snow information, diagnoses, and danger levels are documented and made available to the LARA community.
Evaluate, test and learn with LARA
LARA uses the simplified Systematic Snow Cover Diagnosis (vSSD) and the Systematic Snow Cover Diagnosis (SSD) to evaluate the small block test. Expand your avalanche knowledge step by step.
Step by step
LARA offers you a systematic introduction to assessing the small block test and creating a personal risk level.
Understandable
By combining our specialist and technical know-how, we can present even complex issues in a simple, understandable and visual manner.
Instructive
With the practice diagnosis function, you can learn to make a diagnosis independently. Furthermore, you can expand your knowledge in the field of avalanches through our continuing education opportunities.
Share your LARA review
At LARA, everyone benefits from the community’s reviews. That’s why all test results are published and displayed on a map.
Data from all over the world
Reviews from experts, among others
Optimal basis for planning tours
Precise information
Experience level is displayed
Important data at a glance
Color-coded and easily readable
Feedback from other users
Data is visible 24 hours a day
Expert & professional opinions
At LARA, we maintain close contact with various independent experts and professionals. For this reason, we are proud to present you with their opinions on LARA.
By using the LARA app or the consistent application of the simplified snow cover diagnosis, users have, for the first time, a tool that allows them to make the best possible assessment of snow cover stability on an individual slope based on the small block test.
The app’s integrated exercise diagnosis offers beginners and experts alike the opportunity to become thoroughly familiar with the topic.
To put it bluntly, there is no other tool that can achieve a comparable level of safety in the field!
Walter Würtl
Alpine scientist
As mountain rescuers, we often find ourselves in situations where we have to assess dangers. This isn’t just the case during avalanches, but also when we’re deployed in open terrain in winter. We have to assess individual slopes and their avalanche danger in order to reach mountaineers or ski tourers in distress.
Based on our training, we use the small block test, which shows the current avalanche situation in the terrain we are currently on for individual slope assessment. With the new Lara app, we can have our assessments of the individual slope re-evaluated. The results of the small block test can then be reviewed again.
I see one of the biggest advantages in the fact that this is also documented and that we are protected in our volunteer work.
What I really like is that, thanks to the practice diagnosis for beginners, our young mountain rescue candidates have an app that introduces them to the topic of snowpack diagnosis after completing the small block test.
I also see enormous advantages for the avalanche commission with the new Lara app.
Since we work with the SSD here, we can create the local avalanche danger levels at various locations in our area of responsibility and use them for our documentation.
But here, too, the Lara app serves to re-check our results and consolidate our previously assessed opinion.
After conducting the small slide block test, I see a huge advantage in assessing snowpack stability and establishing a danger level due to the short time required to enter the various parameters.
Any tool or app that helps prevent an avalanche event that could cause personal injury or property damage helps us in our volunteer work and has our full support.
Heinz Pfeffer
Chairman of the Mittenwald Avalanche Commission
750
Downloads
453
Active Users
8667
Diagnosis
4
Partners
Prices
In order to keep LARA up to date with the latest technology and to be able to offer you further new features in the future, we offer you a choice of three different LARA licenses.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have a question about LARA? We have the answer here.
Offline mode doesn’t need to be activated manually, as LARA automatically detects a poor internet connection. When offline mode is activated, this message appears: “Offline mode has been activated.” When your internet connection improves, LARA will deactivate offline mode.
No, this is no longer possible after a diagnosis or personal risk level has been completed. Since the diagnostic data is encrypted, sent, and stored in German data centers, it cannot be changed afterwards.
Systematic Snow Cover Diagnosis and the Small Block Test were developed by Georg Krontahler more than 20 years ago. Since then, this method has mostly been used to train avalanche commissions or teaching teams from various associations or institutions. With LARA, it’s now possible to offer this training not only to experts, but to every winter sports enthusiast.
According to accident statistics, avalanche victims are often experienced mountaineers or locals who know the terrain very well and who often choose their tour destinations at short notice based on snow and weather conditions. General rules of conduct that suggest avoiding certain areas of terrain depending on the danger level are often ignored, as they are blanket classifications that are independent of the specific situation on each individual slope.
Since the Systematic Snow Cover Diagnosis, which is integrated into the LARA app, has been shown by several studies to achieve a very high accuracy rate in assessing individual slopes and is relatively easy to learn, the LARA project aims to encourage experienced mountaineers, in particular, to look at the snow cover, thus opening up additional sources of information for them.
All content of the app and the internet portal is subject to copyright protection and is the property of LARA E.U. Any reproduction of our content, including storage in electronic systems and extracts thereof – such as images, texts, graphics, lessons, films, etc. – is prohibited without the express written consent of LARA E.U.
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