Yes to both. I drove a lot in Tahoe and the drops on the side of the road are very steep and there is no salt on the roads. The area just dumps a ton of snow at once too. Mix that with people who visit the mountain areas aren’t usually driving in snow.

What I saw in Tahoe is chains are required based on your set up. I had an all wheel drive with snow tires and used chains one winter when we got like 10 feet of snow during a weekend storm leaving the mountain skiing, but generally I just carried them in the trunk- and that was what was required with my set up. If you didn’t have all wheel drive or snow tires, you often would have to put on chains to get through the passes and they would make you do it at the checkpoints.