Steep Glacial Driveway vs Traction Control

I now have 10 days and added 800 miles to my "new" 2010 Blizzard Pearl p5 that I stumbled upon with under 3K on the clock. Not a lot of factory warranty left but low miles on an extremely clean 2010. I'm still learning and playing with the electronics and educating the family and friends about the Prius famiily as gas prices escalate upward. I also got to test out the glacier this morning on the 17" factory wheel/tire setup. 1-2" of light snow doesn't mean much to most of you but at the top of the glacier sits my home. I dropped into ECO mode on descent, grabbed the paper and was very suprised that I made it back up with the traction control talking back. It kinda felt like the traction control was limiting the power as I crested the top. Thought about this during the day. In the evening I hit the PWR button that appeared to give more power response/speed thus momentum. The TC talked back but I felt that the power was not limited as much as in the ECO mode. Does that make sense or is it that the improved pedal response let me control the RPMs and thus the traction control? I expect the seasonal electronic tests on various snow conditions and depths and to continue and the ability to climb the glacier improve as I eventually graduate to snow tires on 15" rims. That may have to wait until next winter although portions of the media are claiming 6" of snow next week. The glacial tests continue....

 

I'll lean toward pedal mapping as I fear sliding off the glacier! I'll continue to test every day I have glacial conditions and will update as needed. MR