Last weekend I went skiing, and for the first time I actually drove my theoretically winter-competent, 4-wheel-drive Subaru into the Sierras.

This was stupider than it sounds, because I drove up on bald summer race tires, and with autocross suspension set on full-stiff. And not only did I not bring chains, I didn't even have the option to use chains because my rear damper assemblies only clear the rear tires by about 1mm, which is not enough space for chains.

To my surprise, the car was a total champ in rain, snow, and slush, holding its own with the much more competent (at least by comparison) CRV with more season-appropriate tires.

Until, that is, we got to a neighborhood on top of some miserable mountain in Nevada. It turns out that neighborhoods are not salted or even really plowed, particularly, and I got my car stuck on a hill for over an hour and nearly crunched by marauding Pathfinders about 10 times. We eventually had to put some borrowed chains onto the front wheels to limp it out of there, and even that was quite scary on some of the steeper hills. There was a good 3 hours where I thought I'd be coming back to get my Subaru in May.

So the moral of the story is, chains are probably overkill for most conditions, but snow tires definitely aren't. So if you want me to drive you to Tahoe, I will, but it's going to cost you $500 in snow tires.