AWD helps, but knowing your vehicle and how it performs in the snow, will get you further than fancy devices. Now having the skills AND the fancy devices will take you almost anywhere.

when I was a kid, living on the prairies, the first winter I had my driver’s licence I went out to this big huge and very empty parking lot and started off having fun doing doughnuts. but then I started getting a feel for how it responds when it’s on the edge of control. and was practicing skid turns, regaining control etc. A RCMP car eventually came by, and just sat there for a min or two. I was thinking Uh oh… but he flicked on his lights, and I came to a stop, he walked over and asked what I was doing. I guess I gave the correct answer “learning how to drive in the snow”. He told me he got a “stunting complaint”, but he could clearly see that I wasn’t doing it entirely for thrills, or I would have been just burning those doughnuts. He gave me a few tips, on how to recover from a skid better, and told me to knock it off at that location but told me about another lot I could try and practice a bit more.

That interaction has literally saved my life a number of times, by giving me the skills early on how to recover when the vehicle is at the edge of control. I worked a career driving, never ended up in the ditch (touch wood) and have driven through the hairiest storms you can imagine.

Learn your vehicle, learn how to push it to the edge, and how to come back. (but do so in a safe place)