Mountaineering, backcountry skiing and other wintertime recreational activities are becoming increasingly popular. Yet, visiting mountains in the winter can be fraught with serious danger, even death. In this thesis we assess the opportunity for improving the safety of wintertime mountaineering with modern information and communication technology. We first conduct interviews and surveys with more than 950 participants to understand the needs of mountain visitors. We identify the lack of knowledge as a main issue that causes dangerous behaviour in the mountains. In collaboration with domain experts we then devise the specification of a mobile app that dispenses contextually-relevant information to those embarked on mountain trips. Finally, we implement the app prototype and through a 10-user study demonstrate its usability.
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