New England had a nasty winter storm of snow, sleet, freezing rain.
I skiied an epic 4 hrs of powder snowing 1-3”/hr entire time yesterday and drove back in it.
Cross climate 2 near half worn did so well. No issues in snow on 2015 Pilot on drive home . The rain line started 30 miles from my home and the state plow strategy was leaving 3” of snow treated with salt/sand to make slush for passable roads as it rained instead of glare ice.
A friend following in their newer Pilot struggled with new BLIZZACK winter tires to keep up with me going 40-45 on highway and fell back. The ability to shed water is amazing and in this case Cross Climate the superior winter tire in conditions. I know CC2 they lose on ice.
You really cannot compare tires based on the fact that someone following you fell behind. Maybe they just did not feel comfortable.
But to your point:
1. Blizzak starts deeper. Could CC2 be better in evacuating slush? Absolutely! It is all about thread design and how fast it can evacuate slush. That is where A/T tires in snow are actually good.
2. Is CC2 going to be better in rain. Not that it is, it SHOULD! Winter tires are generally not as good as all weather, all season, especially summer tires in rain. Why? Compound. And here I am not talking hydroplaning, I am talking braking and handling. Excellent ice braking/handling performance and excellent wet braking/handling performance just don't go together. Snow tires will have far better ice braking/handling performance than all-weather tires. Difference between Blzizak WS90 and CC2 in ice stopping in tests is between 16-20ft at 12mph on the ice ring (the difference in snow braking difference is very similar). CC2, on the other hand, performs much better in wet braking, being almost 30ft better at 60mph.
CC2 has to do a lot of stuff, so when designing tires, the question is, who will buy them? Some people think that their exploitation does not require tires like WS90, which means they might need better wet performance bcs. warmer climate, melting snow etc. CC2 really excels in wet. In typical snow performance, no, they don't. Bcs. most important snow performance is braking and handling. How good CC2 is in snow? Actually, it stops a few feet further than the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S4 and, on ice, performs the same as the Continental DWS06.
And here we come to an important point. Are DWS06 and Pilot A/S4 going to perform the same at super cold temperatures, let's say -10f or -20f as CC2? Probably not, as CC2 will have a more flexible compound. But that also means that CC2 will not perform nearly as good as snow tires in those temperatures.
WS90 is by far the best snow tire I drove in wet (and I owned probably 50 different snow tire models in the last 30yrs). And that says something as VikingContact7 was an extremely good performer before. I also had Nokian Hakka R2 that was excellent in snow and ice but in the rain? Praying worked better than actually stepping on the brake pedal. Does WS90 perform as well in wet as Continental DWS06+ I use in summer on BMW or the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S3 that I have on Tiguan? Absolutely not! But for winter tire, they perform exceptionally well in wet.
