Read This..Superb Tires
I used these tires through the winter of 2011/2012 which we had limited snow, but cold (ish) temps and found they were excellent. Im a spirited driver and the wear rate is excellent.
Winter 2012/2013 a lot more snow has landed. All i can say is i love these tires. We live in Bury and have a local hill called Holcombe hill. One of the snowy nights i took the car for a drive, overtaking everyone with summer tires getting beeped at an awful lot. I even overtook 4x4 un-knowingly to them i have winter tires and they have summer tires. I drove up Holcombe hill with ease, turned round half way up, it just turned driving into so much fun.
I know the limits of the tires, you're not invincible but i'll be removing them end of march and getting a 3rd winter out of them. Unless there is 1 foot of snow you will not get stuck at all with these tires. Cornering, ice, snow, rain, dry, cold these will do it all. Try and buy in middle of summer when cheaper. One last point on Winter tires do not buy any tires from ebay which have 3-4mm of tread on winter tire. Trust me you will not get the full potential of 6mm plus tread (AT LEAST) and you will think winter tires are no good. I have also used Hankook optimo 4s and they are superb tires as well.