Part of the Terms of Use. Must be actively confirmed on first launch and again after any material change.
The German version of this document is authoritative.
The essentials, in four sentences
Gipfelbuch is a planning aid, not a hazard assessment.
The app does not replace the official avalanche bulletin in its original form, does not replace official weather warnings, does not replace your own assessment of conditions on site, and does not replace alpine training.
The absence of a warning is not an all-clear. You must never conclude from the absence of a message, a push notification or a marking that no danger exists.
Anyone moving in alpine terrain is exposed to hazards that nobody fully controls. You assume that risk and the responsibility for your decisions yourself.
1. What this app is — and is not
It is: a compilation of publicly available data, our own calculations and first-hand reports from other users, prepared for tour planning and for additional situational awareness in the field.
It is not: an official warning service, a substitute for the avalanche bulletin, a substitute for weather consultation, a rescue service, an emergency navigation system, or a clearance for any tour.
We are not a public authority. We operate neither an avalanche warning service nor a weather service. We pass on data collected by others, and we calculate indications from it. Both can be wrong, outdated, incomplete or unavailable.
2. The limits of each individual feature
This is the most important section of this document. Read it once in full before relying on any feature.
2.1 Slope angle and terrain analysis (avalanche safety check)
Slope angle is calculated from a digital elevation model (DEM) with a grid spacing of typically 5 to 10 metres. It follows that:
The displayed angle is an average across the grid cell, not the angle at a specific point. Small-scale steep steps, gullies, cornices, terrain edges and rock steps below the grid resolution are not represented. An area displayed as 32° may locally exceed 40°.
Elevation models vary in age and accuracy. Errors are largest in steep rock, in forest and on glaciers. Glaciers change their surface annually; the model does not.
Snow changes the terrain. Wind-drifted accumulations, cornices, snow bridges over crevasses and bare patches appear in no elevation model.
The analysis considers only slope angle, aspect and elevation. It says nothing about snowpack structure, weak layers, whumpfing, wind loading, solar radiation or cornice formation — precisely the factors that determine whether an avalanche releases.
Remote triggering, glide-snow and wet-snow avalanches and avalanches from starting zones above are not modelled. A flat area may lie in the runout of a slope that begins 500 metres higher.
Forest is treated neither as a protective nor as a risk factor.
An area coloured green does not mean that no avalanche can occur there.
2.2 Avalanche bulletins (EAWS, avalanche.report and others)
An avalanche bulletin is a regional forecast, not a description of the actual state and not a guarantee. Within a region there are considerable local differences.
We display bulletins downstream. Minutes to hours may pass between publication by the warning service and display in the app; without a network connection a cached and possibly outdated version is shown. Every display carries a timestamp — check it.
Assignment of your position to a warning region is automatic. Near regional boundaries the assignment may differ from what the warning service intends.
We display bulletins in abridged form. The full text — in particular danger patterns, snowpack structure and trend — contains information missing from the summary view. Every bulletin links to the original. Read the original.
For some regions no bulletin may be available. That does not mean there is no avalanche danger there.
2.3 Official weather warnings (GeoSphere Austria, DWD, MeteoAlarm, NWS)
We pass on warnings from the warning services unchanged in content but filtered by region. The original message of the respective service always prevails.
Warnings reach us through interfaces that can fail, deliver late or transmit incompletely. Uninterrupted delivery is not technically guaranteed.
Warning thresholds and criteria differ between countries. A warning level in Austria is not the same as the same level in Germany or Italy.
An area without a warning is an area for which the responsible service has issued no warning — not an area without weather hazards.
2.4 Thunderstorm proximity alerts
The alert is based on radar-detected thunderstorm cells provided by the responsible weather service (GeoSphere Austria in Austria) and on third-party model forecasts. Time passes between the detection of a cell and the display in the app — for detection, transmission, processing and delivery of the push notification. This delay can amount to several minutes.
No lightning detection takes place. What is detected are thunderstorm cells in the radar image, not individual discharges. A cell may already be electrically active before it is identified as a thunderstorm cell by radar.
Outside Austria, no radar cell data is available. There, the display relies solely on a model forecast with considerably coarser spatial and temporal resolution.
Mountain thunderstorms form locally and quickly. A cell can develop directly above you without any cell having been detected nearby beforehand.
The configured radius is an arbitrary distance, not a safety zone. Lightning strikes regularly occur several kilometres from the precipitation core.
This feature is an additional indication. The sky, your hearing and your timing remain the primary instruments.
2.5 Wind and launch window analysis (paragliding)
The basis is numerical weather models with a horizontal resolution of typically 1 to 12 kilometres. At that resolution individual mountains, ridges, basins and valley wind systems simply do not exist in the model.
Thermals, lee rotors, venturi effects, ridge lift, valley wind systems and gustiness are not represented, or only in heavily simplified form.
A launch window indication is a model statement about large-scale conditions, not a clearance for a particular launch site at a particular time.
Launch site information comes largely from users. It may be outdated, and legal circumstances — land ownership, access restrictions, nature reserves, airspace restrictions — change without our knowledge.
Airspace: this app is not an airspace information source. Only official aeronautical information (AIP, NOTAM) and the applicable national rules are binding.
2.6 Community contributions and condition reports
Contributions are personal observations by individuals at a specific point in time. They are neither checked nor verified nor confirmed by us.
A verification badge ("verified mountain guide", "verified pilot") means we have checked a qualification once. It says nothing about the accuracy of any particular contribution.
Mountain conditions change within hours. A report from yesterday may be grossly misleading today. Check the timestamp.
A contribution is not a clearance and not a recommendation. That someone completed a tour does not mean it is feasible today, in these conditions, for you, with your equipment and your ability.
2.7 Maps, routes and elevation data
Map and route data come from official sources and OpenStreetMap and are updated at varying intervals. Trails may have been rerouted, closed, washed away or may no longer exist.
A drawn route is no statement about passability, difficulty, condition or permissibility — including whether access is permitted at all. Rights of way, wildlife sanctuary zones, protected areas and seasonal closures are often not contained in the data.
Elevations, distances and gradients are approximations. Calculated walking times are statistical estimates and do not apply to you.
Offline maps reflect the state at the time of download.
2.8 GPS, recording and accuracy
Positional accuracy depends on reception conditions. In narrow valleys, beneath rock faces, in forest and in poor weather the deviation can be several tens of metres; barometric and GPS altitudes regularly differ.
Recording and alert functions consume battery. Cold reduces battery life drastically. Operating system power-saving features may terminate background recording without us being able to prevent or reliably report this.
A smartphone is not emergency equipment. It replaces neither transceiver, probe and shovel, nor map and compass, nor an emergency plan.
2.9 Push notifications
Push messages are delivered through third-party systems (Apple APNs, Google FCM). We have no influence over delivery. Messages may arrive late, not at all, or more than once — depending on network coverage, battery level, power-saving mode, system settings and provider outages.
Never rely on a warning reaching you.
3. Personal responsibility
The decision whether, when and how to undertake a tour is yours alone. Before every tour, check independently:
the official avalanche bulletin in its original form and the official weather forecast;
conditions on site, continuously and with your own eyes;
whether your training, experience, fitness and equipment match the tour;
whether your emergency equipment is complete, functional and practised;
whether someone knows where you are and when you intend to be back.
Where the app's display and your observation on site diverge, what you see always prevails.
In an emergency: Alpine emergency number 140 (Austria), European emergency number 112.
4. Liability
4.1 What we do not exclude
We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence and in all cases of injury to life, body or health. We are likewise liable without limitation where liability arises under product liability law or other mandatory statutory provisions.
Such liability cannot be excluded or limited by agreement — under § 9 of the Austrian Product Liability Act, under § 6(1)(9) of the Austrian Consumer Protection Act as against consumers and, for versions placed on the market from 9 December 2026, under Art. 15 of Directive (EU) 2024/2853 as transposed into Austrian law. Nothing in this document is to be understood as restricting those claims.
4.2 What we do exclude
For slight negligence our liability for damage to property and for pure financial loss is excluded. This expressly does not apply to personal injury or to the cases set out in 4.1.
In particular we give no warranty as to: the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of any displayed data, whether calculated by us or obtained from third parties; the availability of the service and the delivery of notifications; content contributed by users (Art. 6 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065); or the accuracy of data from official warning services, weather services and surveying authorities, whose information we merely pass on.
4.3 Contributory negligence
Anyone who bases a safety-relevant decision solely on information from this app, without carrying out the checks set out in section 3, acts contrary to the express warnings in this document. This may be taken into account when assessing contributory negligence.
5. Data sources
All data sources used and their licences are listed at https://gipfelbuch-alpin.com/lizenzen and in the app under Settings → About → Data sources and licences. The respective publishers are responsible for the accuracy of that data; all of them publish their own disclaimers.
Every warning and every bulletin in the app links to its original source. In case of doubt, the original prevails.
6. Confirmation
By using the safety-relevant features you confirm that you have read and understood this information, that you are aware of the limits described, and that you bear the remaining risk yourself.
This confirmation is obtained on first launch and again after any material change. You can view this text at any time under Settings → Safety information.