Backcountry and Ski Touring Growth: Carrying Systems Buyers Now Ask For

The boundary between lift-served and touring terrain is being redrawn by capital spending. Alterra’s 9 September plan for winter 26/27 allocates $3.2 million to remote avalanche control at Palisades Tahoe and adds 200 skiable acres at Deer Valley. Both decisions expand what a skier can reach in a day, and both change what a carrying system has to do once they get there.

Avalanche control is an access decision

At Palisades Tahoe the investment covers six new Gazex and Gazflex exploders at Palisades, five Wyssen avalanche towers at Alpine and a new CATEX cable system in The Funnel. The stated purpose is to conduct mitigation more efficiently and reduce the time employees spend in avalanche terrain, including during heavy snowfall, limited visibility and strong winds. Read commercially: more terrain stays open in storm cycles, which is when sidecountry traffic spikes.

Deer Valley’s Hail Peak Express adds seven runs and brings the resort to 32 chairlifts and 4,500 skiable acres. Meanwhile Ski Utah now publishes uphill travel policies resort by resort alongside its opening dates, a sign that resort managers are formalising uphill access rather than tolerating it.

What a touring pack is now asked to do

Buyers comparing ski-carry packs converge on a short list. Diagonal carry with a reinforced strap path and a protected edge is the default for narrow skis; A-frame remains the option for wider boards and for riders who need the pack to sit flat on a lift. External helmet carry, a dedicated skin pocket, and hip belt pockets sized for a beacon plus a folded strap sit on almost every requirement sheet.

Hardware is where accessory suppliers compete. Webbing in the 20 to 25 mm range with aluminium or acetal hardware, hook and loop keepers that hold a coiled strap without adhesive, and compression that keeps a 20 to 30 litre pack stable when it is half full. A pack that collapses badly when empty is the most common complaint in this category, and it is a strap-and-webbing problem rather than a fabric problem.

Sourcing takeaway

Position the carrying system as a fit-critical component, not a generic pack. Ask for two carry configurations in one pattern, quote the strap path as a separately replaceable assembly, and supply a short fitting card showing diagonal and A-frame routing. Buyers who can show that card at a trade show close more accounts than buyers who quote litre capacity, because the retailer’s staff use it on the floor. For accessory programmes, the same logic applies to ski straps sold alongside touring packs: one wide strap for skin retention, one narrow strap for pole and pack compression.

Building a backcountry carrying programme? See the hiking and carry range.

Sources

Alterra Mountain Company, “Alterra Mountain Company Invests Over $350 Million in Capital for 26/27 Across Its Family of Destinations”, 9 Sep 2026, https://www.alterramtn.co/en/news/alterra-mountain-company-invests-350-million-in-capital-for-2627-across-its-family-of-destinations

Ski Utah, “2026-27 Utah Ski Resort Opening Dates”, https://www.skiutah.com/blog/authors/yeti/utah-ski-resort-opening-dates/