[Soterik]

In Washington state, 4wd gets you out of chains required, but everybody else has to do it. Traction tires required means snow tires. Traction tires advised means you can use your "slicks".... The worst guys out there are the 4wd guys with summer tires on 22's on their Denali's.

I run Hankook w409 Ipike studded on my 4wd Suburban, 2010 Outback, and our Passat. We've got 2 kids in different age groups doing ski racing all winter long, so we're usually going different directions on many weekends. We've run Cooper, Michelin X ice, and Hakepelitta (sp), and the Hankooks are by far the best we've had so far. We run separate sets of rims for the winter tires, but we're literally in the mountains EVERY weekend during ski season.

I'd be tempted to run studless as the new tires are pretty good, and the local State Patrol also runs studless, but I've got a driveway from hell at my cabin, and the sun can shine on it in the afternoon, and then it will ice over. I've literally had situations in front of my cabin where I couldn't stand up due to the ice, and a car will slide across the parking area into a snow wall on a very slight grade. Studs go on Nov 1st...tomorrow.