The arrival of autumn marks the official start of the 2025-2026 season. If you're planning on heading out into the backcountry this winter, now's the time to start planning your trip. We spoke to some backcountry guides about their open tours. Use this information to help you plan your trip this season.
Guest age range
The survey was answered by 15 backcountry guides who provide guide services in popular backcountry areas such as Hokkaido, Tohoku, Hakuba, and Yuzawa. First, we asked about the ages of the guests who participate in their tours.
The largest age group, at about 71%, was 45-54 years old. We can imagine that they are middle-aged to senior businessmen with financial leeway and the ability to easily take vacations. The majority of backcountry skiers are repeat skiers rather than beginners.
Here is the age demographic data for STEEP users (from Google Analytics).
The 25-34 and 35-44 age groups are the most common, both at about 27%.
The 45-54 age group, which accounts for the largest proportion of participants in backcountry tours, accounts for approximately 24%. This shows that backcountry users are older than the STEEP user demographic.
Gender ratio of guests
When asked about the gender ratio of guests participating in backcountry tours, over 60% of guide clubs had a ratio of 70% men and 30% women. Since open tours generally accept solo participants, solo women are also welcome.
Tour recruitment start date
Next, we asked when backcountry tours start accepting reservations. We often hear that during the New Year holidays and other high season holidays, reservations are already full by the time you realize it. If you know when tours start accepting reservations, you can be sure you won't be late in making a reservation.
Over 50% of guide clubs start booking tours in early October, making it the perfect time for a tour. 30% of guide clubs start booking tours in early November, meaning it's safer to book your tour before the snow starts falling.
Busy tour times
It's clear that tours tend to be crowded in January and February, the peak season when fresh snow falls and snow conditions are good. What was surprising about these results was that March was extremely low, at just 3%.
How should we interpret the fact that there are more tour users between April and May? It may be that many users are aiming for powder snow in the harsh winter, and spring mountaineering, where the weather is stable and hiking is easy, and skiing on corn snow is also fun. March is a transitional month between winter and spring mountaineering, so it's hard to pinpoint the purpose of going to the mountains, and people just don't feel like going...perhaps it's the time to prepare for spring mountaineering.
Bindings used by backcountry guides (skiers)
What kind of gear do professional backcountry guides use in the mountains? Every season at STEEP, we ask backcountry guides about their favorite gear, but this time we asked them in particular about the bindings they use.
The most popular binding is MARKER's "KINGPIN" at about 27%. Next are DYNAFIT's "ROTATION14" and 22Designs' "LYNX" at about 18%, but the LYNX is a telemark binding. As tours involve a lot of hiking, it seems that models with a good balance between climbing and skiing are popular. The bindings mentioned are as follows. Check out the photos.
For users with little experience in backcountry skiing, choosing bindings can be a technical and difficult task, with questions such as what bindings will make it easy to move around in the mountains, whether you'll have to compromise on glide, and how well they will work with your boots. It's a good idea to check them out as a reference.
Beacons used by guides
What beacons do professional guides choose?
MAMMUT is by far the most popular. Guides often select products based on "reliable operation under the worst conditions" and "reliability that can be trusted with lives." Their long experience running tours also leads them to prefer products that are "less prone to operational errors" and "less prone to navigation errors."
The MAMMUT BARRYVOX S2 features "Intelligent Fine Search Guidance," a fine search aid designed to prevent malfunctions during the final stages of a search, when searchers are likely to get lost. This makes it easy to approach the target using the correct guidance, making it a trusted choice. The high-contrast display, readable even on snow or in direct sunlight, and the simple, user-friendly interface, even with gloves on, are likely reasons for its popularity. Firmware updates and settings synchronization via Bluetooth are also highly rated for their ease of use and bug fixes.
Furthermore, MAMMUT has a long history of over 150 years, and a strong brand status, having entrusted the lives of people who work in the mountains, including alpinists in the Alps, mountain guides, and rescue crews. This image is likely to be a factor in its popularity. Furthermore, there is also a mentality among guides that "it's reassuring to have the same equipment as others because compatibility and common operation give you a sense of security," which is likely at play.
Given these multiple strengths, it is easy to imagine why it is particularly popular among guides. However, PIEPS's "PIEPS Pro IPS" is equipped with a unique electromagnetic interference protection system, which has made it popular with guides and other backcountry skiers who spend most of their time skiing.
In the 2025-2026 season, PIEPS released the "PIEPS Mini IPS," which inherits the performance of the PIEPS PRO IPS while being ultra-lightweight and compact. Its high cost performance, priced at under 60,000 yen, has made it increasingly popular with users.
BCA's "TRACKER 4" is easy to operate as it has few complicated mode switches, and it is also cost-effective, making it a model that can be recommended to general users.
