Spring is here? Spoke too soon.

I guess I spoke too soon the other day about the lovely springtime weather we were getting here in Anchorage.
http://priuschat.com/forums/fuel-economy/45451-hooray-springtime-2.html#post604848
I suppose I was bragging a little too loudly about the glorious bicycle commuting, as my hubris has clearly angered the weather gods. The first attached photo (sorry, cell phone resolution) show my "prigloo" after work today. The second shows the foot deep snow I had to plow through to get into my garage. The third shows the plow, er.., front of my prius after plowing the driveway.

I should mention that I just had my studded snow tires swapped last week for a set of Michelin X-radials from Costco. Please let these pics serve as witness to the competancy of the Prius in winter driving conditions. :whoo:

Time to break the xc skis out again.

 

The studded snow tires are incredible in the winter. I can't think of a single instance during which I had any traction issues. In fact, the Prius is vastly superior to our 4wd jeep in icy conditions (obviously the jeep would be better in extremely deep snow). I can't speak to non-studded snow tires on a Prius, but we do have dedicated, non-studded winter tires on our Jeep Liberty. The additional sipes and softer rubber compound provides a significant improvement over all season tires. It seems that some Prii (perhaps certain model years or software revisions?) have poorly operating traction control, however this has not been the case with mine. I have driven our Prius in snow, ice and every combination thereof without issue.