Our Mission
The primary purpose of the European Avalanche Warning Services (EAWS) is to support its members in preventing loss of life and damage due to avalanches by providing society with efficient and effective avalanche forecasting and warning services.
Objectives
- Developing standards, best practice guidelines and recommendations for avalanche warning services
- Exchanging expertise and promoting staff training
- Fostering cooperation between neighbouring services and promoting collaboration between Members
- Enhancing communication and awareness about the avalanche danger to all the categories of users through avalanche bulletins, new forecasting products and common standards and terminology
- Liaising with other relevant organisations and engaging in strategic relationships and alliances with those that share the objectives of the EAWS
- Ensuring that all programs, services, and materials are based on current research and scientific evidence
Standards
See all Standards
Our standards are described in the Memorandum of Understanding and under STANDARDS at avalanches.org.
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
See full MOU
EAWS commits to liaising with reliability and honesty and to establishing a knowledge-based consortium. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) describes the objectives agreed by the members and the terms and conditions under which they will cooperate to achieve these objectives.
Milestones
EAWS Milestones
2025, JUNE
Revised Danger Scale accepted for consultation (see summary GA 2025)
2022, JUNE
Definitions of Snowpack Stability and Frequency, how to set the Spatial and Temporal Scale,the Workflow for Avalanche Danger Level Assessment and the new EAWS matrix
2019, June
New web page for EAWS:
https://avalanches.org
2017, June
2017, June
Further development of the EAWS matrix
2017, June
Renaming of Avalanche Sizes
2015, June
Introduction of the
Avalanche Problems
2009, June
Introduction of the Information Pyramid
2004, April
Introduction of the Glossary
2003, May
Introduction of the Bavarian Matrix (now EAWS Matrix)
1993, April
Introduction of the
Avalanche Danger Scale
1983, October
Foundation of the working group of European Avalanche Warning Services in Munich
© Ragnar Ekker
Members
EAWS Members
Organization
EAWS Organization
Chair Person
Christine PIELMEIER
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Switzerland
Coordinator
Thomas FEISTL
Avalanche Warning Service Bavaria, Germany
TAB – Technical Advisory Board
Montse BACARDIT PENARROYA
CGA, Spain
Igor CHIAMBRETTI
WG3 leader, AINEVA, Italy
Mark DIGGINS
SAIS, United Kingdom
Silke GRIESSER
AINEVA, Italy
Thomas FEISTL
Avalanche Warning Service Bavaria, Germany
Norbert LANZANASTO
Avalanche Warning Service Tirol, Austria
Christoph MITTERER
WG2 leader, Avalanche Warning Service Tirol, Austria
Kinga OSTROWSKA
TOPR, Poland
Christine PIELMEIER
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Switzerland
Frank TECHEL
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Switzerland
Alexandre TRAJAN
Meteo France, France
Membership Committee
Emanuela GINI
Meteomont Carabinieri, Italy
Gloria MARTI
ICGC, Spain
Aleš POREDOŠ
ARSO, Slovenia
Lisa PULLING
Avalanche Warning Service Styria, Austria
Thomas STUCKI
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Switzerland
Working Group 1
Revision of the Avalanche Danger Scale
This working group has the mandate to:
- oversee and support the consultation phase (September 2025 – April 2026),
- conduct revisions (May & July/August 2026),
- provide the necessary documents for the extraordinary General Assembly (October 2026),
- oversee the final design process following GA acceptance, and
- support the introduction of the revised Danger Scale for winter 2027/28.
The group’s primary focus is the introduction of the updated Danger Scale. This involves a formal revision process and the collection of feedback from both forecasters and users.
To work efficiently, the group is organized into small subgroups (max. six members each), each led by a designated contact person:
- Core Group – oversee and support, coordinate with sub-groups 2 and 3, tasks associated with mandate
- Crisis Management & CAP – update the “crisis management” column and ensure compatibility with the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP).
- User Testing & Surveys – design and distribute tests and surveys to gather user feedback and assess the clarity of terms in the updated scale.
Karsten MÜLLER
WG1 leader, NVE, Norway
Lorenzo BERTRANDA
Meteomont Carabinieri, Italy
Michael BUTSCHEK
Avalanche Warning Service Salzburg, Austria
Igor CHIAMBRETTI
WG3 leader, AINEVA, Italy
Mark DIGGINS
SAIS, United Kingdom
Anne DUFOUR
Meteo France, France
Philip EBERT
University of Stirling, United Kingdom
Rune ENGESET
Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, Norway
Jordi GAVALDA BORDES
Conselh Generau Aran (CGA), Spain
Silke GRIESSER
AINEVA, Italy
Veronika KRIEGER
Avalanche Warning Service Salzburg, Austria
Guillem MARTÍN BELLIDO
SMA-OECC, Andorra
Christoph MITTERER
WG2 leader, Avalanche Warning Service Tirol, Austria
Gerit PFUHL
Ben REUTER
Meteo France, France
Nicolas ROUX
Meteo France, France
Frank TECHEL
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Switzerland
Jürg TRACHSEL
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Switzerland
Matthias WALCHER
Avalanche Warning Service Tirol, Austria
Working Group 2
Funding and Organisation
The main goal of this working group is to review possibilities for funding within the EAWS. In addition, we will do a review on how other similar organisations established managing personnel.
Christoph MITTERER
WG2 leader, Avalanche Warning Service Tirol, Austria
Martin BEŠINSKÝ
SLP+HZS, Slovakia
Arnold STUDEREGGER
Avalanche Warning Service Styria, Austria
Working Group 3
Education
Igor CHIAMBRETTI
WG3 leader, AINEVA, Italy