[sbryan]

I just have to chime in here. As a Vermonter I drive in ice and snow 7 months out of 12. I agree that a soft compound tread is pretty critical for winter traction, especially on ice. I have used studded snows on my 4WD vehicles in the past but as has been noted, dry pavement handling suffers and they are noisy. If aggressive tread pattern alone was all there is to winter traction then even the stock BFG tires would be fine in the snow but that doesn't seem to be the consensus. Depth of tread is also a factor, as are the ability of the tire to bite into snow and slush. Many snow tires stagger the tread design across the tire profile so the tire is always biting into new snow that has not yet been packed down by the tire. Narrower profile tires also seem to get the nod for providing more bite and less float, which has also been my experience. Great discussion so far.
Shawn