At some times there are places here where they are required. Some times it is just for towing units and sometimes for everyone. You go there without them on your rig and get stuck or cause an accident it is all on you. The HPs are not going to just call AAA to have you pulled out.
Most every steep grade has a pull over lane for chaining up and then one for removal on the other side. Mostly for trucks. A semi that didn't make the grade and is sliding backwards down a mountain is not good.
In Montana there are still lots of places with no cell service. You break down out there on a night like tonight (-30 right now) and there isn't going to be much if any traffic. If your car won't run and you have no other way to keep warm your DEAD in short order. It kills people here every winter. I have known several people that died from the cold. A 17 year old kid that died that when he got stuck and tried to walk a few miles back to a house. They found him in the morning laying on the road with his coat wrapped around his feet. Another guy I knew died when his snowmobile broke down and no one found him in time. 2 women who got stuck froze in their car that was so covered with snow the planes looking for them did not see it. Montana and Wyoming have 1.6 deaths per 100,000 annual hypothermia deaths per year, The highest in the lower 48 states. Alaska has far more 4.6 per 100,000.
Heck in 2018, they know that at least 37,000 heat of cattle died from the cold in Montana. One year a early storm in S Dakota killed 100,000 head in less than a week. Winter here can be brutal on man and beast.
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