I lived and flew in the mountains of Idaho, Montana and Nevada for 20 some years. I started out using a 172 and learning the basics of mountain flying. Dad had two different Skymasters both normal aspirated. Turbo's would be nice but not a necessity. Here are a couple of strips I did operations in and out of several times.
http://www.airnav.com/airport/55H
http://www.airnav.com/airport/U60
http://www.airnav.com/airport/U81
http://www.airnav.com/airport/U63
http://www.airnav.com/airport/U87
Here is some action at U87
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...0374385469147#
Don't let the length of these strips fool you. You might say that these strips are 3 and 4,000 ft long. No big deal. Check the elevation at some of these locations. Then think about DENSITY ALTITUDE. If you think about taking off in the summer at one of these strips you are going to be easily looking at a 10,000 ft density altitude. So not to be taken lightly. These strips sometimes have one way in and one way out. You are also on turf, dirt, gravel, not hard surface. Take all this in account when flying the back country.
The normal aspirated Skymaster is a really nice aircraft for these operations. You can really have a good time taking your Skymaster into these beautiful areas.
The STOL kit is a great addition. VG's would be another great addition but I have never flown with them. The gear on the Skymaster is strong, no problems on the rough surface. The only other caution is the rear prop picking up FOD. One must practice good techniques in the some loose surface areas.
The Skymaster will work well, if fact for most of my experience it was very impressive and comfortable. I think a lot people were surprised when we showed up in a twin.