I don't think that Alaskans are snobs when it comes to durability but we don't want to second guess whether or not our gear will survive.
This pict is from a glacial moraine on barnard glacier. Basically you have to travel on a river of rock over a river of ice for miles. It wears the living daylights out of everything. More than 5 different hunters have died there due to rock slides avalanches, crevasses, and just nasty country in the last 100 years. This picture is 15 miles from the take out landing strip and about 12 miles from either good goat hunting or sheep hunting in two different directions. It is a roughly 35 mile tramp. In general when you see this stuff and alders, you choose the alders.
