Does anyone own wide (>= 68mm at the waist) metal edged skis like the Rossi BC 90, Fischer Outtabounds, Karhu XCD Mountain, etc?

If you take them in groomed tracks, are they too wide to fit? FYI, I'm thinking of a Christmas gift for my old man; an XC ski that's as stable and controllable as possible with touring speed on the flats not a consideration at all, as long as they're not too annoying for groomed tracks...

Check out Karhu... www.karhu.com
They have a line called "XCD Backcountry" that will probably meet your needs.

Zach

Yeah Zach, I'm already looking at Karhu... I'm trying to decide on a width. These skis are up to 30mm wider at the tip than wide track cross country skis. Which I think is fine for my dad because he's very much a beginner and anything that makes the ski more stable underfoot is going to be good. But I don't THINK I want to go so wide that it really sucks for machine groomed XC track skiing...

Edited to add: It's a real bummer that nobody rents this kind of equipment, otherwise I'd just try it out

The widest point on the ski will determine whether it fits in the track, so you should look at shovel (tip) width rather than waist width.

IMO the softness of a ski has as much to do with comfort and stability as does the width. So stay away from any high performance "go fast" ski. A softer flex will also keep the wax pocket on the snow; slip-back is especially annoying to new skiers and this is more common in high performance skis, again IMO.