SoGnar Snow turns avalanche education into a game — and tries to keep the lesson alive after the classroom

A new Colorado-built app is attempting to solve one of avalanche education’s most stubborn problems: how to stop safety knowledge from fading once a Level 1 course ends. SoGnar Snow, developed with students at Colorado School of Mines, combines playable 3D lessons, avalanche-forecast mapping, route planning and a digital field journal in a single subscription app.

Created by the Director of Outdoor Recreation at Colorado School of Mines and developed with students over two years, the app turns classroom concepts into arcade-style games. Its creator says the goal is to help users retain and apply avalanche knowledge long after formal instruction, including people who completed a Level 1 course years ago.

SoGnar began as a daydream while the founder was finishing a ride at Lair O' Bear in Morrison, Colorado. Well, it may have been a daydream, or it could have been a concussion. That morning, he had seen that a buddy of his had beaten his fastest time on the Rutabaga Loop, one of his favorite rides! That couldn't happen.

Riding for his life, he did what we all knew was gonna happen: he crashed his bike! He went OTB! (Over the handlebars) He broke his ribs and his handlebar light. Ohh yeah, he was mountain biking at night... Alone... He still finished the ride, with the broken light in his mouth. And yes, he did beat his friends' time.

Once he was crusin' in the parking lot towards his car, he thought, "Maybe there is a cooler way to go about this. I like to compete with my friends, but damn, my ribs hurt. I beat my friend, but I didn't even come close to the fastest known time out here. How could we keep this competitive nature in a way that no one gets hurt?" Thus, SoGnar was born.

The founder started working with the CS Field Session project and sponsored a Senior Design Capstone Project at Colorado School of Mines in Fall 2025. What started as a brainchild (or a brain injury) turned into something bigger. Two students continued development through an independent study, a provisional patent was filed covering the core gamification and GPS-based reward mechanics, and the platform started taking shape as a real product. Today, SoGnar Technologies LLC is a Golden, Colorado-based outdoor recreation technology startup with a mission to make outdoor fitness genuinely, absurdly fun.

What started with bikes didn't stay on bikes. Today SoGnar is a family of three activity-based apps — SoGnar Cycles, SoGnar Snow, and SoGnar Stride — each with its own arcade, each at a super low price, so you only pay for the sport you play.

Why they're Doing This

Most fitness apps treat your time outside like homework. Log your miles. Hit your zones. Grind the data, and unhealthy competition. SoGnar flips that. They believe every outing should feel like an adventure, not a grind... that the reward for getting after it shouldn't be a graph, it should equal fun beyond the trail. They built SoGnar for anyone who wants to compete in light-hearted ways while also enhancing their outdoor experience.

They continue to flip the script on competition. You'll still be able to record and review your metrics and history, but only you will be able to see it (not available for sharing outside the app). They do not care to compete for the fastest times or the longest days. We all just want to have fun, have light-hearted competition with friends, and enjoy the experience. The leaderboard reflects how much Gnar you earn in mini-games, not how fast you are.

Austin Dyer is the founder of SoGnar Technologies LLC and the Director of Outdoor Recreation at Colorado School of Mines. He brings over a decade of experience in international expedition leadership, including a descent of Mount Kilimanjaro. Austin serves as a Board Member of the COMBA. Austin has earned a Product Management Certificate through Mines' Engineering and Technology Management Graduate program, blending institutional leadership with an entrepreneur's orientation to build SoGnar from the ground up.

Credentials: SoGnar Technologies LLC Founder, MEd., PMP, CPRE, Adventurer| Board of Directors, Colorado Mountain Bike Association (COMBA)

Giving Back.

SoGnar is proud of its Colorado School of Mines roots. So far, they have awarded 96 credit hours to college students. These students focus on app development, building features, launching marketing campaigns, and learning what it takes to ship a real product to real people. It's outdoor technology built by students for everyone.

SoGnar gives away 10% of its profit

• SoGnar believes in the power of Education. SoGnar is dedicated to donating 5% of its profits to universities associated with its educational programs and internship programs.

• SoGnar is proud to donate 5% of its profits to the Colorado Mountain Bike Association to continue making Colorado Mountain Biking a Gnarly experience.

• SoGnar is also proud to donate $3 to the Utah Avalanche Center for every Utah Subscriber

From classroom to playable terrain

SoGnar Snow’s central idea is that avalanche education should not end when the course certificate is issued. Instead of relying solely on slideshows, handouts or occasional refresher sessions, the app presents core decision-making concepts as short, interactive games.

The games include The Triangle, which explores how terrain, weather and snowpack interact; AVALANCHE!!!, a timed rescue drill; and The Pits, which asks users to cut and interpret a snowpit. Other modules cover snow science, topographic route planning and the fictional “Uncle Al” guide character’s origin story.

That structure is designed to make practice repeatable. A user can rehearse terrain choices, rescue sequencing or snowpit interpretation in a low-stakes environment, then apply those habits to real forecasts and routes.

More than an avalanche quiz app

SoGnar Snow is positioned as a “Swiss Army knife” for resort and backcountry riders, rather than a standalone e-learning product. Alongside the games, it includes a live avalanche-forecast map drawn from official avalanche information centres, downloadable and plannable routes, waypoints, offline track storage and a field journal for snow observations and trip notes.

The app also includes a “Gnar Tracker” and crew-connection features, encouraging users to record days on snow and plan outings with others. Those functions matter because avalanche education is not only about recognising instability; it is about building a repeatable process of forecast review, terrain selection, group communication and post-trip reflection.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center already offers free online tutorials, videos and Avalanche Aware e-learning as entry points for backcountry users. SoGnar Snow’s differentiation is that it tries to make that ongoing practice habitual: users can check conditions, plan a line, log observations and play a short training game in the same place.

The approach also fits a broader shift in outdoor education towards scenario-based learning. Rather than asking, “What is a wind slab?”, a game can place the user on a slope, expose them to changing weather or terrain cues, and require a decision under time pressure.

A practical tool — with limits

The app’s forecast map pulls from official avalanche information centres, but it does not replace those centres, professional instruction or a full rescue-training programme. Its value is likely to be as a bridge between formal education and field practice: a way to keep concepts active between courses and seasons.

That distinction will be important for instructors and avalanche organisations considering adoption. SoGnar Snow can reinforce terrain-choice thinking, snowpit literacy and rescue drills, but it cannot replicate the judgment developed through guided field days, mentorship and repeated real-world observations.

Availability and pricing

SoGnar Snow is available on the App Store for iPad and iPhone through SoGnar Technologies LLC. It is free to trial, then requires an auto-renewing subscription: $1.99 per month after a three-day trial, $19.99 per year after a one-week trial, or $15.99 for the first year with an annual no-trial option.

For an app aimed at backcountry users, that pricing is deliberately accessible. The bigger test will be whether it can convert novelty into routine: whether riders return not just for the games, but for the forecast check, route plan and field notes that make safer decision-making part of every day on snow.