I was in McCall Idaho helping my wife with her booth in the Winter Festival and this was my view. this is Payette Lake, it is froze over with around 6 in. of snow on it. my question is what is the best way to outfit a buggy for this type of condition? skis? blades? spikes? what works and what doesn't?

photo added

The boys at Apexx have a pretty sweet setup. PKF member on sabbatical "kteguru" has another successful setup , search his old posts for pics. I think the Apexx crew is the closest to having a tricycle setup work well under variable conditions. The wide snowboards have an advantage over the snowmobile skis and if their skeg/blade were easily adjustable for raising up and down no doubt their rig would work well in all conditions. The alternative is to go with a two ski tilt on edge setup , and that's a completely different animal. I've seen barrow tires run on bare ice that had some texture to it. An inch of snow that has bonded to the ice you can run tires on. I've always figured that studded tires of some sort would be a cheap easy solution in most places but I haven't gotten around to that experiment.

interesting, I thought that snowmobile skis would give you more bite for side load than a wider ski or snowboard. this is why I need to seek out the experienced, thanks I will search that info!

In deeper snow the snowmobile ski sinks in more, creating tilt and drag, thats the difference. They both run with a sharp skeg/blade that handles the side pull (and the ice) so are pretty equal there. Original snowmobile skegs are not what you want , kteguru had special stainless blades mounted to the bottom or thru his snowmobile skis , ran well on ice and would skip over drifting snow easily. Soft deep snow is where the tricycle set up has difficulty and a big fat slippery board acting like an out-rigger is where the answer is.

yep I found a video someone using snowmobile skis and I can now see the issue. I will try and find the stuff Apexx was doing and see if I want to go that route. I may just learn to ski

If you can roller blade or skate you will pick up skiing easily. Even if you don't , skiing is the easiest of all the "go fast with a kite" things you can do.

yes Apexx has the best thing going http://www.snowbuggy.nl/technology.php looks expensive though........... the only skiing I have done is water ski. + the 15 years of framing have not been kind to my knees but I may suck it up and give it a try some time. I bet the guys at the ski shop in McCall don't have a kite

Here...

...skiing with a kite requires a bit less overall ski skill than going down a hill...but you should still have the basics down first perhaps(lesson(s)).

Turning, braking getting on edge/angulating as such...

:wee::wee::wee:

I find snowkite to feel very similar to 2 ski water skiing at times. If you have done that you have a decent background to give it a try. Start on short skis.

I also think that studs would be a chaep way to go and that it just may work?

I didn't know the Apexx team used flexible skates under the boards I thought somewhere else I saw a much shorter solid skate. I wonder how they deal with ice.