Professional Network

Point of Contact

Platform

Think tank

Professional Network

Platform

Point of Contact

Think tank

The independent association, whose activities are not for profit, pursues non-profit goals and aims at the interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge and the promotion of teaching, development as well as training and application in the field of applied snow and avalanche research and related areas. The work of the association extends to the Austrian federal territory.

Vision

The Austrian Society for Snow and Avalanches lives the combination of theory and practice in the avalanche community in Austria in such a way that the Austrian public has a maximum of trust in the work we do, promote and follow.

Mission

  • To facilitate the exchange of standards and technical information within the Austrian snow and avalanche community.
  • Support and source of resources and information for raising public awareness on snow and avalanches in Austria.
  • Promotion and support of research and development in the field of snow and avalanches

The Board of Directors of ÖGSL

Our team
Jan-Thomas Fischer, Team | ÖGSL – Österreichische Gesellschaft für Schnee und Lawinen

Jan-Thomas Fischer

President

JT works as an professional in avalanche dynamics in there field of applied avalanche research and university education. For him, the questions start where snow begins to move - in avalanches. In laboratory, field and computer experiments he tries to fathom the physics and processes behind the snow masses. For him, ÖGSL brings together what fits together: Snow, mountains and people and their fascination with them!

Christoph Mitterer, Team | ÖGSL – Österreichische Gesellschaft für Schnee und Lawinen

Christoph Mitterer

Vice President

Christoph is a snow and avalanche researcher and the technical coordinator in the ALBINA project. He is a staff member of the Avalanche Warning Service Tyrol. He loves powder, firn and wet snow. But above all he likes to philosophize about avalanche forecasts and their dangers. For him, ÖGSL is the place where science and practice can meet unchecked.

Sascha Bellaire, Team | ÖGSL – Österreichische Gesellschaft für Schnee und Lawinen

Sascha Bellaire

Cashier

Sascha is fascinated by the mountains and what you can do there, especially in winter! That's why he has turned his passion into his profession and has been working in the field of applied snow and avalanche research for 15 years now, with stopovers in Switzerland and Canada. The snowpack is a fascinating but complex object whose development we try to predict. Sascha is working on exactly these 'forecasting tools'. Bringing scientists and practitioners together is often not easy, but ÖGSL tries anyway!

Ingrid Reiweger, Team | ÖGSL – Österreichische Gesellschaft für Schnee und Lawinen

Ingrid Reiweger

Cashier

Ingrid is a snow and avalanche researcher, specializing in snow mechanics, avalanche triggering and avalanche rescue. After studying physics in Graz and almost ten years at the WSL- Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF in Davos, she now works at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna. Ingrid has been travelling in the mountains since her youth and loves snow in all its forms.
For her, ÖGSL offers the opportunity to bring together practice and science in Austria and to make them visible as a unity on an international level.

Paul Dobesberger, Team | ÖGSL – Österreichische Gesellschaft für Schnee und Lawinen

Paul Dobesberger

Secretary

Since he was little, he has been on the move in the mountains, whether on skis, snowboard or shovel - he feels at home in the snow. That's why he made his passion the subject of his studies and has been working in the field of snow and avalanches with a focus on avalanche risk management since 2006. For several years now he has not only been allowed to work on the phenomenon of avalanches scientifically, but also to trigger them in a controlled manner with the help of avalanche blasting systems. For him, the ÖGSL offers a roof for the entire snow and avalanche community, also beyond the Austrian borders.