Performance of skis depends on a number of factors, including snow depth, consistency of the snow, temperature, aircraft weight, power, etc.
Northern MN can get a fair amount of snow. The good news is, that part of the world often stays fairly cold, so wet, sloppy snow isn’t common. The problem, as noted above, with any penetration ski, like the Summit, is that part of the tire protrudes through the ski, and creates a LOT of drag. In wet snow, that drag can be HUGE. In powder, not so much. The second issue with penetration skis is that they all have some sort of “tail wheel” to prevent the aft end of the ski from dragging on the runway when on a runway. Unfortunately, that little wheel also creates drag. And again, that may be considerable in certain snow conditions. A friend has a Cessna 185 which he flys to his cabin in the Brooks Range of AK. His skis are Landes Airglas penetration skis. Those skis had a single tailwheel, mounted on a spring attached to the aft end of the ski. Many times, he’d have to remove those tailwheels just to get airborne off his lake, even with a groomed strip. He’d fly to Bettles, land on the (groomed) runway, reattach the tailwheels, then fly home.
So, penetration skis are a compromise. They might work fine in most conditions you’ll find in northern MN.
But at some point, everybody gets stuck on skis. If you can afford retractable skis, like the Datums, odds of getting stuck are decreased....at least a little.
Dress warm, carry enough gear to spend the night, and have fun. Ski flying is the most fun you can have in a light airplane.
MTV