Car keys. An allowance. A later curfew.
These are the typical requests young people make of their parents. Thor Tingey, however, asked his mother, Sheri, to make him a boat capable of withstanding the feral thrashing of an Alaskan river.
There’s only one reason why a young man demands the impossible or seeks the improbable: love. Thor had fallen head-over-heels in love with packrafting. The sport enabled him to embrace the essence of exploration.
“To me, explore means going places that are new to you,” Thor explains, going on to note that one needs the gumption to stray from the prescribed path. “The original concept of packrafting is that.”
Although historians can trace the origins of packrafting as far back as the 1845 Franklin Expedition, it remained a nascent, niche, and pioneering sport up through the late 1990s. Not surprisingly, packrafting gear—especially the raft—was still rather rustic. Thor traversed hundreds of river miles in Alaska using inflatable rafts that barely functioned.
Meanwhile, Sheri was an avid outdoor enthusiast, a kayaking fanatic, and a clothing designer who had been custom-designing ski, climbing, and other outdoor apparel since the 1960s.
“Mom’s talent is 98% in design and innovation. That’s what she does. That’s what she lives for,” Thor attests.
Fast-forward to 2000—the Tingeys launched Alpacka Raft, a company devoted to hand-crafting the most durable, user-friendly, and lightweight packable rafts. A few years later, they moved their operations from Alaska to Mancos, Colorado, where they could manufacture every boat in-house rather than outsource production.
“The employee base here is really great,” Thor notes. “We have a large number of workers in Montezuma County who are looking for jobs like what we have, who have the skill set to meet those jobs, and who are willing to do that work.”
With a staff of roughly 40 employees, the packraft manufacturer can produce anywhere from 80 to 120 boats per week. Each packraft is hand-cut and hand-sewn, with all materials sourced in the United States (minus a cargo-fly zipper from Germany).
Marking their 25th anniversary in 2025, the Alpacka Raft crew is proud to have revolutionized the packrafting sector of the paddle sports industry through constant design innovations. The company’s extensive philanthropy supports local schools and nonprofits that nurture outdoor education and promote wilderness conservation.
As Thor notes, exploration—especially with the right equipment—is easy.
“The hard part,” he says, “is keeping it secret.”
To me, explore means going places that are new to you...