Save the zones you actually ski. When you open a region, Snow Doctor scores each of your saved zones against today's avalanche forecast, weather data, and field observations. You already know how your spots look before you decide anything. Free to use; My Zones, Audio, and Ask the Doctor require a free account.
Planning a backcountry day in BC means juggling four or five browser tabs. The avalanche forecast is on avalanche.ca. Weather models are on SpotWx. Field observations are on MIN. Your zones are either in your head or in your route planning app. None of them talk to each other, and none of them tell you what it all means for the terrain you actually want to ski.
The specific aspects, elevation bands, and ATES ratings of the zones you're weighing. Context that turns a generic forecast into a relevant one for the terrain you actually ski.
Tells you the danger rating and which problems are active. Doesn't tell you the weather context that created them, or what happened this past week to set the stage.
Show you raw data for any point you drop a pin on. Don't tell you what any of it means for snowpack stability, wet-slide risk, or travel conditions.
Give you ground truth from people who were there. Scattered, unweighted, and requiring interpretation to understand what they mean for your objective.
Snow Doctor solves the synthesis problem. All four sources, interpreted for the specific terrain you actually ski.
Save the spots you actually ski, each with its elevation band, primary aspects, and ATES terrain rating. When you open a region, Snow Doctor scores each saved zone and ranks them: which ones are in your margin today, which need a closer look.
The score has three components. A terrain bonus rewards high-value objectives: alpine lines score higher than treeline, complex terrain higher than simple. Weather modifiers are elevation-aware; the algorithm compares the forecast freezing level against your stash's elevation to determine whether incoming precipitation hits as rain or snow. A bluebird day scores very differently for an alpine line than a treeline zone. Zones you've starred as favorites also get a small bonus, nudging your go-to spots up the ranking.
The avalanche component goes deeper than the overall danger rating. Every active avalanche problem is checked against your stash's specific aspect and elevation band. If there's a Wind Slab problem rated Likely on north-facing alpine terrain and your stash is north-facing alpine, that stash takes a direct hit on the score.
Full scoring breakdown in the blog. There's also a Risk Heatmap view that places your stashes on an ATES × danger grid.
Not sure which region to open, or weighing terrain you haven't saved yet? The Snow Doctor homepage shows every BC and Canadian Rockies zone at a glance, colour-coded by avalanche danger. Each card shows:
Enough context to eliminate the obviously wrong options and surface the candidates worth opening, before you dig into a single forecast.
A structured briefing generated from avalanche, weather, and field observation data. Six sections, each with a job.
Recent weather, snowpack evolution, and danger context in one paragraph.
1–10 rating on how well the data supports the briefing, and why if it's low.
Which aspects and elevation bands to target. What to avoid and why.
Surface to base: each layer tied to the weather event that built it.
How incoming weather will interact with existing weak layers over the next 48 hours.
What to watch, test, and decide in the field. Five questions for your group.
Generated fresh on each zone load. Timestamped so you know how current it is.
Doctor's Orders converts to audio so you can review conditions with your crew on the way to the trailhead, without anyone staring at their phone in the dark at 5am.
After Doctor's Orders, a follow-up chat interface opens. It already has the zone context (avalanche forecast, weather data, field obs), so your questions get answers grounded in the current picture, not generic advice.
No overnight freeze. Freezing levels near 4000m, so there's no crust to corn up. It'll be mushy from the start.
Be off steep solar aspects by 11 AM. If boots are sinking past the ankles on the climb, the slope is already dangerous. Work backwards from that cutoff based on your approach time.
Snow Doctor doesn't produce any of the underlying data; it synthesises it.
Professional daily bulletins, danger ratings by elevation band, avalanche problems with aspect/elevation/likelihood detail
HRDPS, RDPS, GDPS (Environment Canada), GFS (NOAA), ECMWF: grid-point forecasts at the zone's lat/long
MIN field observations within 50km: snowpack reports, avalanche observations, access notes, weather reports, photo submissions
Your saved terrain profiles (aspect, elevation band, ATES rating) so the AI can evaluate every forecast against the specific characteristics of the zones you actually ski
The Avy tab runs the full Avalanche Canada bulletin through a structured AI analysis pass — not a restatement of danger ratings, but an interpretation specific to your zone. It tells you whether the pack is behaving predictably or on edge, breaks down each avalanche problem by aspects and elevations, layers in the snowpack architecture so you understand the failure planes, and translates the regional forecast to the specific terrain features you'll actually encounter. The distinction between trigger probability and consequence size — low-and-predictable versus house-of-cards — is explicit.
The raw forecast data is on the first slide. The Doctor's Orders synthesis is on the second.
The 7-day weather history is the standout. The summary table gives you temperature, freeze level, precipitation phase, wind, and solar radiation broken down by AM / PM / Night across three elevation bands. All in one scrollable view. Scroll right and the same layout continues into the 7-day forward forecast. Five NWP models available, from the 2.5 km HRDPS for the next 48 hours to ECMWF for a 10-day outlook.
The six charts are tuned for backcountry decisions: freeze-thaw cycle detection, wet-slide windows overlaid on both the temperature and solar radiation charts, wind loading thresholds marked at 40 and 60 km/h, cumulative snow load, and a fog-risk view built from the temperature–dew point gap. Every chart covers the full 7-day window.
The Obs tab pulls MIN reports within 50km and synthesizes them into a single field report. Instead of clicking through five individual observations (each with different detail levels, distances, and relevance) you get one clear read: how fresh and representative the data is, what riders are actually finding on the ground, and what terrain they're avoiding.
A good MIN report is gold. But most people don't have time to read ten of them and weigh proximity, recency, and credibility on the fly. Snow Doctor does that pass for you.
Verified May 2026. Full breakdown in the backcountry tools guide.
| Feature | Snow Doctor | Avy Canada | SpotWx | Snow‑Forecast | Windy | Mtn‑Forecast |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avy danger ratings | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Avy problems detail | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Field obs (MIN) | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Weather models | ✓ 5 | ✕ | ✓ 20+ | Basic | ✓ | ✓ |
| BC-tuned charts | ✓ 6 | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| AI synthesis | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Audio / Car Mode | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| 7-day history (free) | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| 7-day forecast (free) | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | Paid | ✓ | ✓ |
| Zone saving + scoring | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Regional overview | ✓ | Partial | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| BC / Rockies focus | ✓ | ✓ | Global | Resorts | Global | Global |
| Free to use | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Partial | ✓ | ✓ |
Swipe to compare →
Open any of the 50+ BC and Rockies zones and get the full briefing: avalanche deep-dive, weather analysis, field observation synthesis, and Snowpack Layer Cake. Free, no account needed. Audio mode, Ask the Doctor, and My Zones require a free account.
Open Snow DoctorAlso in blog: How Snow Doctor compares to every other tool
