Every fall it's the same ritual. The first snow sticks to the peaks above Canmore and Squamish, and the back room fills up with boxes we pretend we're not excited about. But we are. Very.

Last year we wrote about progress and familiarity, and honestly, most of that story is still playing out. Bindings are seeing incremental improvements here and there. Boots got a handful of updates you'll actually feel. And for the first time, there's a ski on our wall made right here in Canada: 4FRNT, built in Rimouski, Quebec.

But the question we keep getting at the counter has nothing to do with skis. It's about what's on your back. Airbags have dropped a pile of weight and gone fully electric on our wall, so here's the big one: is the airbag on its way to joining the transceiver, shovel and probe as essential kit? Let's dig in.

The Year of the Airbag?

Short answer: It's not quite an essential yet, but it's closer than it's ever been. If you already carry the trio, you've done your avalanche course and you're out in avalanche terrain most weekends, the airbag should be next on your list. 

Lighter Than Your Excuses

For years, plenty of airbag packs tipped the scale past three kilos before you even threw a shovel in. Along with the fiddly refilling and re-arming, it was the number one reason people left them at home on big days, and honestly, we did the same.

Bigger packs and burlier fabrics weigh more, so compare the size you'd actually carry, not just the lightest bar on the chart.

Electric Won

Walk up to our airbag wall this season and try to find a canister. You won't. Every pack we stock from Ortovox, Arc'teryx, Scott, BCA, Deuter and Mammut runs electric: either the LiTRIC system Ortovox and Arc'teryx built together, or the Alpride E2 in everything else. Even Mammut, which stuck with canisters for years and made no secret of its doubts about supercapacitors, jumped on board this year with the new Haldigrat. When the holdouts switch sides, you know the debate is settled.

And honestly, good riddance. Canisters did the job for years, but they were never much fun to live with. Pull the handle once, for practice or for real, and you're done; the cylinder has to be refilled with specialized equipment, usually by a shop or service centre, or swapped for a new one. Every practice pull cost money and a trip to town, so most people simply never practised. Throw in the fiddly re-arming of the trigger and it's easy to see why the canister is going the way of the leather ski boot.

An electric system gives you multiple deployments per charge, so you can practise pulling the handle in your living room as many times as you like for free. No refills mean no excuses. They're also way less of a headache at the airport than a pressurized cylinder (check with your airline anyway), and Alpride says its supercapacitors don't lose punch in the cold. Handy when the trailhead thermometer reads minus twenty-five.

What the Numbers Say

The best data we have is still a 2014 study led by Pascal Haegeli of Simon Fraser University, published in Resuscitation. It looked at avalanche accidents involving airbag users between 1994 and 2012 across seven countries, Canada included.

The headline: an inflated airbag cut the death rate roughly in half, from 22% to 11%. It did that mostly by keeping people on top of the debris. 47% of victims without an inflated airbag ended up critically buried, versus 20% with one.

Now there's a fine print. 20% of the airbags in that study never inflated, and about 60% of those failures came down to the user not pulling the handle. Factor that in and the Utah Avalanche Center figures the real-world benefit is closer to 41% fewer deaths. Which is exactly why free practice pulls matter more than any gram count. Pull it until it's boring.

So, Is It Essential?

Avalanche Canada lists the transceiver, probe and shovel as essential gear for everyone in the party. The airbag lives on the recommended list.

The transceiver/probe/shovel trio is a team sport. It's how your partners find you and dig you out, and how you do the same for them. An airbag only looks after the person wearing it. A group with four airbags and one forgotten probe is worse off than the other way around.

Airbags have their limits too. They can't do much when a slope funnels into a gully or creek bed where even a small slide piles up deep, and they won't protect you much from trees and rocks on the ride down. Then there’s the human part. Wearing an airbag can make you feel safer than you are. If that feeling talks you into a slope you’d normally skip, the airbag has made your day more dangerous, not less.

So here's where we land. Course first. Trio always. If you're touring avalanche terrain regularly, an airbag is the next thing to buy, and for the first time it won't wreck your uphill. The last real hurdle is price: between $1,650 and $2,000 on our wall this year. Sorry folks, peace of mind still isn't cheap.

Notable mentions: The Scott Patrol Ultralight E2 25 is built from Dyneema, which means light without being fragile. The Ortovox Avabag LiTRIC Zero 27 is the minimalist of the LiTRIC family: no zip-on modules, nothing to fuss with. The Arc'teryx Micon LiTRIC 32 was Ski Mag's pick for lightest fully featured airbag pack last season, and it's designed just down the Sea to Sky in North Vancouver. The new Mammut Haldigrat 30 E2 comes in two back lengths and opens from the back panel, which you'll love the first time your snacks are at the very bottom. Shorter torso? Ortovox's LiTRIC Tour 28S and 36S and the Deuter Alproof Tour 36+ SL were built with you in mind.

Come try them on in the shop, or browse the full avalanche airbag wall here.

Made in Canada: 4FRNT Lands on Our Wall

The biggest news on our ski wall isn't a new model, it's a whole brand. 4FRNT is already a bit of a cult out here in Western Canada, and it's now on our wall in Squamish. The brand is American, but its touring skis are made in Canada, at the Utopie factory in Rimouski, Quebec, with Canadian-sourced wood so considering a little national pride on the rack.

The collection is the brainchild of Eric "Hoji" Hjorleifson, and most of it is built on reverse camber. Picture the base shaped like a boat hull: the high point sits underfoot and the tip and tail curve up. In soft snow the ski floats up on its own, breaks trail easily and pivots and surfs wherever you point it. The trade-off is less grip on firm snow, where you'll need to drive the ski a bit more.

Powder hounds and surfy, loose skiers tend to fall hard for them. If you mostly ski firm, wind-scoured alpine, look at the Nevar, the one model in the line with a little camber underfoot for edge hold. The rest, from the 104 mm Raven to the 122 mm Renegade, are soft-snow machines.

These skis don't ski like anything else we sell, and a spec sheet only tells you so much. Come flex a pair in Squamish and ask us all the questions, we'll happily talk your ear off.

Boots: Small Changes, Big Feel

Boots got meaningful but incremental updates this year. None of them are flashy, a tongue here, a walk lever there, a grippier outsole. It's the kind of changes you notice on day forty of the season but not so much in the try-on chair.

The main act this Winter is the Scarpa F1 RS, the newest take on the F1. It keeps the F1's soul as a light, walk-first boot with 1,340 g in a 27, 60 degrees of cuff rotation and a 101 mm last. What's new is Scarpa's Overlap Flow construction, a BOA dial paired with a single buckle and a Booster strap, and an Intuition FS Tour liner. Expect a lot more to push against on the way down than your traditional F1. The women's version comes in at 1,210 g.

Dynafit rebuilt the Seven Summits on the Radical platform. It's still the gateway boot in the lineup, now with a simpler Speed Lock walk mechanism, 60 degrees of rotation and a new thermoformable liner. If you're new to touring or if you want to avoid breaking the bank, that simpler lever is a real upgrade.

The Dynafit Radical Pro gets two small but very welcome fixes for 2027: a dual-density tongue that drives the ski harder without stiffening the stride, and a Vibram outsole that finally grips on rock and firm snow. Otherwise it's the same 120+ flex, same Hoji Lock andmsame roomy last. It was already one of the best all-round touring boots out there. Now it won't skate around on the rocks at the trailhead either.

On the burlier end, Tecnica's new Zero G Decoy Pro GW is the uphill boot for people who ski like they're inbounds. Tecnica took the Zero G Tour Pro and beefed it up with a PU shell, a burlier liner and stronger buckles. It's a 130 flex on a 99 mm last with 65 degrees of cuff rotation, at 1,715 g in a 26.5, and its GripWalk soles play nice with almost every binding out there. The same boot can not ski resort laps on Monday and throw down on the skintrack on Tuesday. Women get the Decoy 115 W, same idea, same platform.

As always, the best boot is the one that fits your foot, not the one with the shiniest spec sheet. Book an hour with our bootfitters and let them work their magic.

Bindings: The Calm Before the Storm?

Last Fall we asked whether the slow death of the tech binding had begun. A year later, the binding wall looks almost exactly the same. Dynafit carried its whole line into 2026/27 unchanged, and nobody else rocked the boat either.

We don't think that's a lack of ideas. It feels more like the whole industry is holding its breath, waiting to see how big a deal the ATK HY really is.

The ATK HY 13 Free and HY 11 Free are now on our wall. With their CNC-machined 7075 aluminium, 675 g per binding, and bright anodized colours, they're just as pretty in person. On the way up, a negative walk mode drops your heel slightly below the toe, which your calves will thank you for on long flat approaches. Jewelry for your skis, once again.

If the HY holds up through a full Rockies and Coast season, expect everyone else to scramble. If it doesn't, the pin binding lives to fight another day. Either way, we'll report back next fall.

Didn't buy new bindings this year? You didn't miss much. Bring them in before the first big day and our techs will give them the once-over.

Before the Snow Flies

The gear keeps getting better, but what actually saves lives is still mostly practice. Own an electric airbag? Pull the handle in your living room this December, then do it again with gloves on. Shopping for one? Bring your own shovel and probe to the shop and load them into the packs you're trying on.

And if you haven't taken an avalanche course yet, start there. No pack, boot or binding on this list beats knowing when to turn around.

See you on the skin track!

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