Well, it about that time of year again. most likely will be riding soon, so I thought I would give a year after follow up of my "Backcountry Apex".
I did not do as much riding as I usually have done the past 3 or 4 winters, but I still got a bit more than 2000 or so miles on this past year.
My style of riding is changing from trail rider to off trail/boondocking. I still love doing both though, so I tried to make the sled be decent at both. For trail riding the sled is still awesome and works well. It has a bit more push in the corners with the longer track but its more than manageable. The worse thing about this sled on the trails, is the 1.75" track. I burn through the first 75% of my hyfax in the first 100 miles, then the last 25% takes 900 miles or so. So it is scary, because after your first ride you realize almost all your hyfax is gone already and start thinking what the hell. But I was patient in changing them, and they lasted many more miles. A 1000 miles out of a pair of hyfax with a 1.75" track, riding in Northern Wisconsin, in both good and bad trail conditions is not horrible. But I think the 1.75" track is definitely overkill for just trail riding. But in great trail conditions like this, it is appreciated with the amount of hookup i get.
The changes I made to make this sled more "Backcountry", made this sled so much better off trail, and very close to a perfect U.P sled. I don't get the opportunity to boondock in the U.P with people who like to ride/boondock the same way I do. But when I do we get caught up in places like this and start to have our fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RG1iDotzP4
That guy, later climbed out with that XP, and I would think if I got caught down there on the Apex, I would not have been able to do it. So in my opinion I improved the Apex alot off trail, but a similiary setup, crossfire, renegade etc, will still beat it.
I also took the Apex out west this last winter and had a blast.
The sled got everywhere I wanted it to go but struggled to get to a few spots. I was out with Yamahaboy701, and his Nytro MTX would easily climb twice as high as me. So the Backcountry Apex could not come close to compete with real mountain sleds. However, I never expected it to.
I still have the sled this year, I changed the oil, put some new bushings in the ZX-2 along with new hyfax, and I am ready to go for another season and that is what I love about this sled. I had a problem with bolts backing out of the ZX-2 last season and falling out or shearing off, and the suspension still never broke showing me how strong and durable the plastic is.
The sled has almost 12,000 miles on it now, and I have no intention on selling it anytime soon. I went half n half purchasing a mountain sled this past summer (M1000), that will only be driven out west, and not in the U.P., at least for this year. So this sled will now likely only be driven on trails every where and off trail in the U.P..
So after owning this sled for 4 or 5 years now, putting 11,000 miles on it myself, and now after making these changes, the sled had given me no major problems. I think over the past 4 years there were maybe 2 or 3 weekends max I could not ride cause my sled was in the shop or waiting for parts, and that is awesome to me.
I still can't wait to drive it again this year.
And I burned threw 3/4 of the hyfax in the first 70 miles. Luckily they stopped wearing then and lasted the rest of the trip. 
