Since I have had the Land cruiser 100, I’ve never bothered about Winter tyres. I live in a country where it is debatable to buy some, as wintery conditions are seldom therefore making it difficult to justify the purchase. The LC is not my main transport and on bad weather it can stay on the drive.
All the previous years when I travelled to the Alps in the winter, I was more than happy with the BFGoodrich in the snow. It seems, there is now not the amount of snow on the roads as many years ago and for 2 weeks it is just not worth.
I am planning to drive to the Alps at the end of the month; I will be travelling through mountain passes where winter tyres (and snow chains) will be needed.
I have purchased a set of Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT2 on original Toyota steel rims which makes my life much easier when I change them over.
It will be interesting to see how the winter tyres compare to the BFGoodrich that I used previously.
I have raised the pressures in the tyres from 35 to 42 psi. Lets see if it makes a difference on the road handling
I like the way how Nokian put the safety indicators on the centre surface of the tyre. The numbers wear out as the tire wears down. Less the 40% the tyre should not be worn in wintery conditions.
Overlanding 
And I thought my Nitto Terra Grapplers had plenty of sipping those things are true snow tires. They actually look pretty aggressive too. I live in Western Wisconin along the Mississippi River and we get a lot of snow. This week we got about 6-inches of heavy snow on top of several inches of ice. I’ve never bothered with snow tires because most modern vehicles have adequate traction control systems to deal with the conditions long enough for road crews to clear the roads. Still, probably 50 percent of drivers opt to install snow tires. Obviously in the mountains or the Alps in your case this is not the case and the snow can be a lot deeper. I’ll be interested to hear how you like these.
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When I was still living in Austria, Winter tyres was mandatory as without them it was impossible to drive on the road. These days the Authority can stop you from using the roads when only summer tyres are mounted or force you to put snow chains on. Also the insurance will not pay out in case of an accident. If you got tyres with the snow flake symbols and the 3 peak mountain which all M&S tyres have, they will be accepted, but after my own experience they are not the cream of the cake and I have been on my last trip into the Alps in a situation where I nearly crashed the Land cruiser fitted with the BFGoddrich AT’s. I believe it is not worth to skimp on the tyres as they are the only contact to the road and any damage to the Car exceed the cost of a set of tyres
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