While it is true that you can ski just about anything with non-metal edged skis I think there are great advantages to having edges on just about any backcountry trip. Especially in the East, where conditions can turn icy as soon as the sun drops behind the ridge, you get a much greater ability to slow down with edges. What may seem like a slight hill on the way up under sunny skies can turn into an icy plummet on the way back.
If you want to be able to tele turn, having some sidecut is extremely useful. It's not an absolute requirement, many of us learned to tele on skis that had almost no sidecut. But why subject yourself to that if you don't have to. The Fischer S-Bound series has several skis with varying amounts of sidecut, some better suited for long distance touring others for turning, all allowing both. Karhu makes a similar group of skis.
I'm a big fan of the lightest plastic boots (Scarpa T4, Garmont Excursion) with 75mm 3-pin bindings. If you expect to climb and descend a lot, get detachable cables. The boots may seem like overkill but there are quite light, offer amazing support, and give you much better torsional control than any leather boot. But there are some nice leather and combo boots as well.
I haven't been too impressed with NNN-BC bindings for anything involving descents, other folks say they're OK. I think a good 75mm 3-pin is more robust and less likely to have a failure, plus I prefer the boot selection.
You will need a ski much shorter than you think you need. Ski lengths have shrunk over the years as skis got wider and skiers got smarter.
-dave-