What have you found works best for a ski width/profile for BWCA travel? How wide do you think you need to go to get enough flotation for it to not be too much work and to avoid the slush?

no ski will be wide enough to provide floatation over slush, in my experience anyway. sounds as if you are in the market for skis, avoid buying second hand skis unless you are sure they are fitted for you. if you have the $$s finnsisu and gearwest have expert staff that will spend a great deal of time making sure that you have the right ski. they tried five skis for me, same brand and model, they all vary slightly in stiffness. they made certain that i got the right fit. it is not quite as important with off trail skis as the performance level required is not quite as important. both finnsisu and gearwest cater more towards the high tech, spandex crowd. i haven't been to midwest mountaineering in a bit but i believe that they are more geared towards off trail skis. they also have a top level staff. rei doesn't take the time to fit skis, somehow they sell all of their skis prefitted. if i were purchasing off trail skis i would be looking at fish scales, they have come a long way in this technology.

quote jwartman59: "no ski will be wide enough to provide floatation over slush, in my experience anyway. sounds as if you are in the market for skis, avoid buying second hand skis unless you are sure they are fitted for you. if you have the $$s finnsisu and gearwest have expert staff that will spend a great deal of time making sure that you have the right ski. they tried five skis for me, same brand and model, they all vary slightly in stiffness. they made certain that i got the right fit. it is not quite as important with off trail skis as the performance level required is not quite as important. both finnsisu and gearwest cater more towards the high tech, spandex crowd. i haven't been to midwest mountaineering in a bit but i believe that they are more geared towards off trail skis. they also have a top level staff. rei doesn't take the time to fit skis, somehow they sell all of their skis prefitted. if i were purchasing off trail skis i would be looking at fish scales, they have come a long way in this technology."

great advice