I ski a lot in the Cascades and I just went through this same exercise. Here is what I did about it:
My wife has a Forester that we use for skiing, I suscribe to a European Subaru forum as well as this one. This forum is almost all about mountain driving in the Alps and northern Europe. They just completed this survey where these tires came out on top. They beat out the Blizzak by quite a lot, and are the top selling studless snow tire in Europe right now.
http://www.michelinman.com/tires/win...acy-alpin-pa3/
More good news is that they are a direct descendant of the Michlein Energy used on the TCH as an OEM tire. They are also Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) so the mileage change will be minimal. Unfortunately, they are too new for me to comment futher at this point as I am still on my first tank. ....More Later.