Increasing a crossover Apex's deep snow ability

I just stretched my Apex to a 144" and went with a 1.75" backcountry track. The sled also has a Boivin ZX-2 suspension. I ride roughly 50% trail here in Wisconsin, 40% in the U.P. off trail riding/trail riding and I also am taking my sled out to the Rockies this year for a few days. I dropped the top gear two teeth to a 22 top gear, I know this is not ideal for high elevation riding, but it should work well here in Wisconsin.

I am looking for some advice on what else I can do to make this sled run decent out west. Sled has 9500 miles, and I just put quite a bit of money into it replacing bearings/bushings etc. to make her go for another 10,000 miles with no problems. I spent a fair amount doing this, and am also a college student so I don't have money to spend on performance products. Is blocking off side panels with mesh or screens nessesary? I have run in deep snow before with this sled and had no problems with clutches slipping or the intake blocking up. Just don't want to hit 3 feet of pow for a day and have my sled run like crap because of the snow blocking things up.

Also is there any cheap clutching changes I can make to improve the deep snow/ moutain performance of my sled. Obviously I will change primary weights, but does changing the helix or secondary spring make a huge difference and is it worth me spending the money on secondary clutch changes for a 3 or 4 day trip.

I realize this sled is not ideal for mountain riding. I driven both Nytro MTX and M8's in the mountains and know it won't touch those. I am just bringing my sled out this time to save some dough.

Any opinions or recommendations or other thoughts I what I should or can do are much appreciated.

I did actually plan on using a 2" challenger. I ordered one from a guy off this site, after I put it on, I found it to be a 141" and not a 144". I PM'd him about this and he is not responding to me. Oh well. The plan was to use the 2" track early season then trim it down to deal with the trails here after we got back from out west. I decided to just go with the Backcountry for good compromise of trail durability and a decent track for off trail here in the midwest. Like I said earlier I know this sled will not compete with the modern mountain sleds out west. I am just looking to do whatever basic things I can to it to have the most amount of fun with it in the mountains. I am not picky, I don't really care if I get stuck the most or can't climb as high. I am just looking to have fun.

I love the ZX-2, living and riding in Wisconsin I can't comment how it does as a deep snow skid. But I bought it because it is one of the few aftermarket skids that is designed to handle the abuse of 1000's of trail miles with no maintenance. I have about 3000 miles on it so far and it is really durable. I ran it as a 121" last year and it definitely helped turn the Apex into a rough trail/ditchbanger. It transfers well and is hard to bottom out. The shocks got the high speed damping increased as well as a more progressive valve setup for this year, with the idea of being able to air out 650lb Apex with little to no bottoming.

Thanks for the ideas guys, don't know if I can swing paying 400$ for gen II skis right now. But with haydays right around the corner, who knows what I will find there.