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If you're a poseur, you seem to be doing a darn good job of it! Lots of "must do" trips, never enough time... that's a story I can relate to.

It wasn't intended to be a personal attack, and I'm sorry if it seemed that way.

Are you asking if you should hike up to the floor of King Ravine and just walk around? If so, the answer is definitely no. It is dangerous avalanche terrain which even experienced winter hikers should avoid unless they have a very solid understanding of avalanche safety.

Edit: Is it really true that the famous pinnah has never skied a standard N-S Pemi Traverse? When good conditions arrive next year, don't hesitate... go for it. Skiers left of the falls is steep but relatively short. When I did it a few years ago in challenging snow conditions, I tried a...

I finally got my second ice axe!

If you're agonizing over the effects of a few mm of sidecut on kick-and-glide touring, you don't want a 100mm shovel, and you definitely don't want plastic boots (even light ones like the T4). I'm not seeing much evidence in your posts that you really want or need to tele ski. You talk about...

You're well into "overthinking" territory. You've gotten lots of good advice, but it may be useful to distill it down a bit. If you don't want to focus on downhill skiing in the woods, whatever skis/boots/bindings you buy will not be very useful at a lift-served area. Also, you won't learn tele...

Many people make parallel turns on freeheel gear. Most of the freeheel skiers I see around on heavier tele gear (including myself) are probably making as many parallel turns as tele turns.

Carrying 200 cm skis A-frame style (what DougPaul describes) could be impossible on many stretches of forested trail. There's no way to keep the skis out of the tree branches above. Hand carrying skis may or may not be easier, but I find if the distance is short enough for this to be practical...

Side step if you can. Improvise if you can't! :)

Something to consider: if you use snowshoes to get out of a jam, how will you carry your skis?

What types of skis and skiing are you considering the snowshoes for? Could you put skins on your skis?

The National Weather Service offices in Gray, ME and Burlington VT have improved tremendously in forecasting for the mountains over the past few years. I use both the point and click grid forecasts, and the higher summits specific forecasts. The summit forecasts cover the Daks and the Greens...

Contacts. If you can wear them, it's worth it.

As long as there aren't any namby-pamby criteria for what counts as trailbreaking, that sounds like a good challenge for someone else. Not for me, though. I've got way better things to do with my time.

It is downright amazing how the mindset for all of us winter hikers -- I'm not trying to single you out, DayTrip, because I see this in myself too -- has changed from "I'm very lucky if the trail is already broken" to "I'm very unlucky if I have to break out 12 inches of snow on a packed tread."...

In general, I wouldn't carry snowshoes if I was just planning to ski. I do carry some large hose clamps (or whatever they are called) that I can use to help fix a broken ski. Snowshoes and other ballast items are not very helpful when attempting to ski or sidestep down anything.

Thanks everyone! Still a couple of weeks away so have to see what the weather does.

Thanks Doug, that is helpful. And yes, my plan involves daylight, at least for the SPT section! :) I'm impressed that you tackled that in the dark -- and I'm not adverse to nighttime travel. I did the standard N-S Pemi Traverse on TFT last year and was looking for ways to spice it up a...

I'm considering a ski route that would involve following the Shoal Pond Trail north to south in early March. I've read some trip reports here, including the epic and very helpful lollipop trip report from DougPaul and Becca M. I have two questions for anyone familiar with the trail in winter...