Ski touring

The avalanche bulletin and weather for ski touring in France

To prepare a tour in the French Alps or Pyrenees, Alpow shows three separate kinds of information without mixing them: Météo-France's official avalanche bulletin (BERA), weather forecasts, and dated observations. It does not choose the slope, the route or whether to set out: those decisions stay yours.

By bonout, publisher of Alpow · published 6 November 2026

Your massif's official bulletin is on meteofrance.com. To find the right massif, see the directory of BERA massifs.

1. The official bulletin

Météo-France writes the BERA for each massif. In Alpow's Avalanche tab, you pick the massif and read the bulletin as published: danger by altitude, reported aspects and avalanche problems, snow cover by altitude, texts quoted word for word in French, issue and validity times, and the meteofrance.com link. Free, no account. The avalanche bulletin explained.

Alpow's Avalanche screen for the Haute-Tarentaise massif: danger by altitude, a sentence of the bulletin quoted as written, a "Read the full bulletin" link and a meteofrance.com link. — App screenshot with demo data: this is not a real bulletin or today's danger level. The dates shown are made up.

2. Weather forecasts

On a resort page, Alpow shows forecast fresh snow, rain-snow limit, wind and temperature from four models (AROME, ARPEGE, IFS, ICON), with the update time and a confidence level based on how far the models agree. These forecasts are for a resort, not your route, and they are not the avalanche bulletin.

3. Dated observations

Skiers can report the snow with a few tags (powder, crust, ice…); each report shows its time, and only those from the last 48 hours are shown. It is a dated impression, not an avalanche observation or a forecast. For observed avalanches, see for example data-avalanche.org.

The map

Alpow's map: massifs coloured by the bulletin's danger level and resorts grouped by area. — App screenshot with demo data: the colours do not show today's danger.

The map colours the massifs by the current bulletin's level and can show IGN's slope layer (30, 35, 40 and 45°). These layers describe the terrain and the bulletin; they do not say whether a slope can be skied.

What Alpow does not do

It recommends no slope, no route and no timing.
It does not combine the Powder score and avalanche danger into a single rating: they stay separate.
It does not predict avalanches and does not replace the bulletin, Météo-France's Vigilance, or training.
In an emergency, the 112 button stays visible at the top of the app's screens; Alpow never calls without your tap.

Neither this guide nor Alpow tells you whether a slope can be skied without risk.Alpow does not replace the official bulletin or your own judgement. In the mountains, you are responsible for your decisions.

Resources

To learn how to read a bulletin and move in avalanche terrain, turn to the reference organisations. Alpow does not rewrite their methods and is not endorsed by them.

Météo-France: avalanche dangers, how to react and stay informed (in French)
ANENA, the French national association for the study of snow and avalanches: information and training (in French).
FFCAM, the French federation of alpine and mountain clubs: clubs and ski mountaineering courses (in French).
data-avalanche.org: a database of avalanche observations.

See also avalanche bulletin notifications to get your massifs' bulletin as soon as it is out.

Find the bulletin and weather in Alpow