Ideal snow tires

The topic of snow in winter does not cease to be relevant. In some regions, the density of snowfall is so high that it simply does not allow for the shutdown of snow removal equipment. But utilities cannot catch snowflakes in the air, and, consequently, each of us faces the issue of overcoming snow cover on our own. We have already written about the importance of having tires that can overcome deep snow, and today we would like to discuss which models perform best in tests.
We will take the test from UTAC Ivalo (formerly Test World) as the basis, which traditionally tests a large number of tires at the same time. At the same time, they try to cover all types of tires and all price segments.
Traditionally, studded tires take the first places. We have previously discussed in detail why studded tires lead not only on ice but also on snow. But what's interesting is that there are some flagship models of non-studded tires that have reduced the gap to a minimum, and in some disciplines, they become leaders. We are talking about Michelin X-Ice Snow and Continental VikingContact 7. Surprisingly, the tread patterns of these tires are optimized to such an extent that they show identical results on snow with studded tires. Moreover, in braking on ice, they even outperform some studded tires from budget brands.

Here are just some indicators of these extremely successful models.
 

Braking distance on snow (meters):
- Michelin X-Ice Snow – 49.4
- Continental VikingContact 7 – 50.8
 
The leaders in the studded segment, in turn, show the following results:
- Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10 – 50.1
- Michelin X-Ice North 4 – 50.4
 
Time to pass a snowy track (seconds):
- Michelin X-Ice Snow – 52.6
- Continental VikingContact 7 – 52.9

The leaders in the studded segment, in turn, show the following results:
- Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10 – 52.4
- Goodyear UltraGrip Arctic 2 – 52.7
 
Thus, we can confidently state that in the non-studded segment, the most powerful tires are Michelin X-Ice Snow and Continental VikingContact 7, and in the studded segment, the leaders are still Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10 and Michelin X-Ice North 4.