SnowLens Terms of Use

Effective date: November 13, 2026

These terms are an agreement between you and Ridgeline Maps LLC ("Ridgeline Maps", "we", "us"), 1000 Homestead Dr Unit 15, Edwards, CO 81632, USA, for your use of the SnowLens iPhone app and the identification service it connects to (together, "SnowLens"). By downloading or using SnowLens you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, don't use SnowLens.

Arbitration notice for US users: section 13 requires most disputes between you and us to be resolved by binding individual arbitration, not in court, and waives your right to a jury trial and to take part in a class action. You can opt out within 30 days of first agreeing to these terms, as explained in section 13.

1. SnowLens is a learning aid, not a safety tool

Read this section carefully. It limits what you can rely on SnowLens for.

SnowLens helps you learn to recognise snow crystals and snow grains and to keep a record of what you find. It is not a replacement for formal avalanche training, field experience, or your local avalanche forecast.

  • AI can be wrong. Identifications come from an artificial intelligence model and from matching against your own past photos. They can be wrong, incomplete or overconfident, including when they show a high confidence level. Photo quality, lighting, scale and background all affect them.

  • You can be wrong too. Your own identifications and corrections, and those of anyone else, can also be mistaken.

  • SnowLens doesn't assess stability. A grain identification says nothing on its own about whether a slope will avalanche. SnowLens is not an avalanche forecast, a stability test, or a substitute for digging, testing and observing.

  • Don't base terrain decisions on SnowLens. Decisions about where and when to travel in avalanche terrain are yours alone. Make them with your training, your experience, current conditions and your local avalanche forecast.

  • Be prepared. Get avalanche training, travel with a partner, carry rescue gear (transceiver, probe and shovel) and know how to use it, and check your local avalanche forecast before you go.

  • Don't use SnowLens while you're moving. Don't use the app while skiing, riding, climbing, driving or travelling in avalanche terrain. Stop in a safe spot before you take a photo or read a result.

  • Information may be out of date or incomplete. Glossary content, avalanche-center details and anything else in SnowLens may contain errors or change without notice.

2. Assumption of risk

Travel in mountain and avalanche terrain is dangerous. It can result in serious injury or death, and those risks exist even for careful, well-trained people. You use SnowLens, and take part in any activity connected with it, entirely at your own risk. To the fullest extent the law allows, you release Ridgeline Maps and its owners, employees and contractors from any claim arising from your activities in the mountains, including claims based on an identification, explanation or other content in SnowLens. This release doesn't cover claims arising from our gross negligence or willful misconduct.

3. Who can use SnowLens

You must be at least 13 years old (16 in the European Union and the United Kingdom), and old enough to agree to these terms where you live. If you're under 18, a parent or guardian must agree to them for you.

4. Your license to use the app

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use SnowLens on Apple-branded devices that you own or control, as permitted by the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions. You may not:

  • copy, modify, sell, rent or redistribute the app, or reverse engineer it except where the law allows;

  • access the identification service other than through an unmodified copy of the app, or use bots, scripts or other automated means to use it;

  • get around daily limits, credit balances, App Attest or other protections, or interfere with the service;

  • use SnowLens to break the law or to infringe anyone else's rights.

5. Your photos and content

You keep ownership of the photos, notes and other content you create in SnowLens. Your field log stays on your iPhone. When you ask SnowLens to identify a crystal, you give us permission to send that photo and the details you entered to our service and to Anthropic, our AI provider, only to produce your identification, as described in the Privacy Policy. We don't use your content to train AI models or for any other purpose.

You're responsible for what you photograph and submit. Don't include other people's personal information, and only submit content you have the right to use.

Avalanche center reports. SnowLens can prepare an observation for you to submit to an avalanche center. You submit it yourself on the center's website, under the center's own terms. You're responsible for its accuracy. Avalanche centers are independent organisations; they don't endorse SnowLens and we don't control their services.

6. Identifications, credits and subscriptions

Free use. The glossary, quiz, field log, map, on-device matching and identifying crystals yourself are free. Identification by our service needs an internet connection. New accounts include a number of free identifications, shown in the app.

Credits. You can buy packs of identification credits as in-app purchases. Each successful identification by our service uses one credit. Credits:

  • have no cash value and can't be transferred, sold or exchanged;

  • are tied to your SnowLens account ID, which is stored in your iCloud Keychain; if you turn off iCloud Keychain, delete that data or ask us to delete your account, unused credits can be lost;

  • don't expire while SnowLens is offered.

Subscriptions. SnowLens Pro is an auto-renewing subscription that removes the per-identification credit charge while it's active. It renews automatically at the price shown at purchase unless you turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings. Cancelling stops future renewals; the current period continues until it ends.

Fair-use limits. To keep the service available and affordable for everyone, each device has a daily limit on identifications, including for Pro subscribers. The app tells you when you reach it.

Payments and refunds. Apple processes all purchases under its terms. Refund requests go to Apple (reportaproblem.apple.com). If Apple refunds a purchase, the credits or subscription from it are removed.

Changes to the service. We may change prices, credit packs or features, or adjust daily limits, for valid reasons such as changes in our costs, the AI models we use or the law, or to prevent abuse. A change won't take away credits you've already bought or shorten a subscription period you've paid for, and we'll tell you in the app before a change that affects you. If a change significantly reduces what you can do with credits you've bought, you can ask us to refund the unused ones.

If we stop the identification service, we'll stop selling credits and subscriptions and give at least 90 days' notice in the app, so you can use what you have. If you still have unused purchased credits or a prepaid subscription period when the service ends, contact us within 12 months and we'll refund their value, based on the price you paid. Free credits have no cash value.

7. Third-party services

SnowLens relies on services from other companies, including Apple (the App Store, purchases and App Attest), Anthropic (AI analysis) and Cloudflare (hosting). Their availability isn't under our control. Links to avalanche centers and other websites are provided for convenience; we aren't responsible for their content.

8. Disclaimer of warranties

SnowLens is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and non-infringement. We don't warrant that identifications or other content are correct, or that SnowLens will be uninterrupted, error-free or available in any particular place or time.

9. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Ridgeline Maps will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any personal injury, death, or property damage arising from your activities in the mountains, even if we were told they were possible. Our total liability for any claim relating to SnowLens is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us for SnowLens in the 12 months before the claim, or US$100.

Some places don't allow these exclusions or limits, so some of them may not apply to you. These limits don't apply to our gross negligence or willful misconduct. Nothing in these terms limits liability that can't be limited by law, or takes away rights you have as a consumer under the mandatory laws of the country where you live.

10. Indemnity

You agree to compensate Ridgeline Maps for claims, losses and costs (including reasonable legal fees) that arise from your breach of these terms or your misuse of SnowLens, except where the law doesn't allow this.

11. Ending your use

You can stop using SnowLens at any time by deleting the app. We may suspend or end your access to the identification service if you break these terms or misuse the service. If we suspend your access, we'll tell you why, and you can contest it by contacting us. Sections 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10 and 13 continue to apply after your use ends.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. We'll change the effective date above, and for significant changes we'll tell you in the app or by update email before they take effect. If you keep using SnowLens after that, the new terms apply.

13. Governing law, arbitration and class-action waiver

Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, and, for section 13.2, by the Federal Arbitration Act.

Time limit. To the extent the law allows, any claim relating to SnowLens or these terms must be brought within one year after it arises, or it's permanently barred.

13.1 Talk to us first

Before starting any claim, you and we agree to try to resolve the dispute informally. Send a written notice describing the dispute and the relief you want, with your account ID if it's about credits, to mike@ridgelinemaps.com (we'll send ours to the email address you give us). If it isn't resolved within 60 days of the notice, either of us may start proceedings as described below.

13.2 Arbitration (if you live in the United States)

If you live in the United States, you and Ridgeline Maps agree that any dispute or claim arising from or relating to SnowLens or these terms will be resolved by binding individual arbitration, not in court, except that:

  • either of us may bring an individual claim in small claims court, if it qualifies and stays there;

  • either of us may ask a court for an injunction to stop infringement or misuse of intellectual property or of the identification service.

The arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules (and, where they apply, its Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules) in effect when the claim is filed, available at adr.org. It will be conducted by one arbitrator, by video or phone or on written submissions if you prefer, or in person in the county where you live. Fees are set by those rules, which limit what a consumer pays; if you show that the fees would be prohibitively expensive for you, we will pay them. We won't seek our attorneys' fees or costs from you in arbitration unless the arbitrator finds your claim frivolous or brought for an improper purpose. The arbitrator may award the same individual relief a court could, and decides all questions about the scope and enforceability of this section, except as stated in 13.3.

You and we each waive the right to a jury trial.

13.3 Class-action waiver

You and we may each bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims of more than one person or preside over any class or representative proceeding. If this class-action waiver is found unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) will be decided by a court as described in 13.5, not in arbitration, and the rest of section 13 still applies. A court, not the arbitrator, decides whether this waiver is enforceable.

13.4 Your right to opt out

You can opt out of arbitration and the class-action waiver by emailing mike@ridgelinemaps.com, with the subject "Arbitration opt-out", within 30 days of first agreeing to these terms. Include your name and your account ID from Settings. Opting out doesn't affect any other part of these terms.

If we change this section 13, the change won't apply to a dispute we already know about, and you can reject it by emailing us within 30 days of the change; the previous version then continues to apply to you.

13.5 Courts

Any claim that isn't arbitrated, including if you opt out or live outside the United States, will be decided by the state or federal courts located in Eagle County, Colorado, and you and we consent to their jurisdiction. If you live in the European Union, the United Kingdom or another country whose laws give consumers the right to bring claims in their local courts, or to rules that protect them more, nothing in this section takes those rights away.

14. Apple

These terms are between you and Ridgeline Maps only, not Apple. Ridgeline Maps, not Apple, is solely responsible for SnowLens and its content.

  • Maintenance and support. We are solely responsible for providing any maintenance and support for SnowLens. Apple has no obligation to provide any maintenance or support services for it.

  • Warranty. If SnowLens fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price (if any) for the app. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation with respect to SnowLens, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses attributable to any failure to conform to a warranty are our responsibility, to the extent not disclaimed in these terms.

  • Product claims. We, not Apple, are responsible for addressing any claims by you or a third party relating to SnowLens or your possession or use of it, including product liability claims, claims that SnowLens fails to conform to any applicable legal or regulatory requirement, and claims arising under consumer protection, privacy or similar laws.

  • Intellectual property. If a third party claims that SnowLens or your possession and use of it infringes their intellectual property rights, we, not Apple, are solely responsible for investigating, defending, settling and discharging that claim.

  • Legal compliance. You represent and warrant that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated by the U.S. Government as a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

  • Third-party terms. You must comply with applicable third-party terms of agreement when using SnowLens.

  • Third-party beneficiary. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms. Once you accept them, Apple has the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce them against you as a third-party beneficiary.

15. General

These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about SnowLens. If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. If we don't enforce a part of these terms, that isn't a waiver. You may not transfer these terms; we may transfer them to a business that takes over SnowLens.

16. Contact

Questions, support or notices about these terms:

Ridgeline Maps LLC
1000 Homestead Dr Unit 15, Edwards, CO 81632, USA
mike@ridgelinemaps.com