Roads between Bar K Ranch, and Jamestown very bad

[Sal DeVincenzo]

Ice, crusted ice, super slick even with snow tires.
27° and fog coating the roadway.
Worst area 3/4 of the way down the switch backs
White knuckles all the way through Jamestown be careful out there.

Obviously late to the party here, but I did want to note that the county road crew did a really good job sanding the roads making the drive home that evening much less treacherous.

Sal DeVincenzo and Bar-K neighbors….
What advice would you offer for us newbies regarding the drive up the hill in snow and ice conditions?  Only snow tires, or chains, or any of the other devices I’ve seen advertised? We do have 4WD/AWD

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Strategy:
What works well is to have 2 sets of tires mounted on rims. Studded or stud-less snows for Winter and all season tires for Summer. Winter for us means put on snows in October and take them off in April. The timing can vary  and some people (like me) swap tires themselves in the garage.

Studs:
If you don't make frequent trips to town, studs are supreme, but every time those studs hit the dry pavement and higher speeds, you sort of regret it. They are noisy and they wear down really quick when you're not on snow. Driving on Foothills at 65 mph with studs isn't ideal but many people do it.
 
Stud-less:
Stud-less are great  95% of the time except  just like studs, they've gotten quite expensive - I guess almost all tires now are expensive depending on the size. The Stud-less tires are much nicer in dry road conditions but again wear very quickly since the rubber compound is very soft. Most people get 2-maybe 3 seasons on their tires driving the canyon I'm guessing. The continuous curves in the canyon creates a lot of heat, and simply eats a lot of the rubber. In the flats you can get tens of thousands of miles on your tires but sadly, in the canyon, it's way fewer.
 
Snows:
There are all-out aggressive snow tires available still that don't fit into the above categories but I see those mostly on Pick-ups and heavier vehicles.
They can be real noisy on dry pavement too.

Chains:
Driving with chains is amazing. The traction can pretty much guarantee you're not going to get stuck or slide, but they are so difficult to manage. Other limitation is they can only  be driven on dry pavement for short distances and have the potential to damage your car or the tire  if they come loose and start banging around so I can't say they are actually an alternative for normal driving. You definitely want your kids school bus  and the snowplow to have them and they do but with these heavy vehicles, they usually deploy automatically.
 
Driving Style:
Slow down. Using low gear going up and especially down the canyon and staying off the brakes helps keep the vehicle steering in the right direction since locked up wheels/tires don't steer at all.  Unfortunately, some have discovered the guard rail this way. Other thing that's true is if the snow occurs on a weekday during school, the roads are typically better maintained. If the snow starts on Friday afternoon a lot of times the response from the road crews are much less timely since the school bus route is over for the week.
 
Snow Day!
Knowing that there are going to be a couple of days out of the year where you look out the window and just say "It's a snow day and I'm staying home" is probably my best advice. 
If that's possible it's a great option. 
Drive safe.