About
What is SnowLens?
SnowLens is an open analytics platform for cross-country skiing — combining race results, course difficulty metrics, and climate projections in one place.
The approach
Data-driven, from results to climate risk
Cross-country ski races are among the most climate-vulnerable sporting events. They take place over tens of kilometres in open terrain, with no possibility of artificial snowmaking. A minimum of around 5 cm of snow cover is required for a race to be held in acceptable conditions — yet the mountain and high-latitude regions where these events are held are warming at twice the global average rate.
SnowLens was built to quantify this risk rigorously, race by race. Rather than relying on general climate narratives, it surfaces the numbers that matter: how snow conditions have evolved at a specific venue over 70 years, and what CMIP6 climate models project through 2100 under two emissions scenarios.
Whats inside
Results & metrics
Full finisher lists, times and gaps. Competitiveness index (race depth, head-to-head density) and difficulty scores (elevation, gradient).
Climate projections
ERA5-Land historical snow data since 1950, Degree-Day Factor snowpack modelling, and CMIP6 projections (SSP2-4.5 / SSP5-8.5) to 2100.
Course profiles
Interactive maps and elevation profiles from GPX traces, with per-segment gradient analysis.
Open data
Built on public sources: Open-Meteo (ERA5-Land, CMIP6), official race results, and OpenStreetMap tiles.
The author
Timothée Tournier
Builder · Data · Cross-country skiing
SnowLens is a personal project born from two passions: data analysis and cross-country skiing. The aim is to bring the kind of rigorous, transparent analytics that exist in other sports to the world of Nordic ski racing — and to make the climate stakes visible for the people who care most about keeping these races alive.