This winter, California saw record snowstorms leaving behind 10 feet of snow in some parts of the state. That meant as the bad weather cleared out, the ski resorts beckoned, so I convinced the family we needed to ditch work and school and go indulge in the deep, deep snow. Despite its compact size, I was sure our long-term AWD Kia Seltos would make for fine transportation to Mammoth Lakes. And if not for the impromptu planning, it would have been.

With every square inch of the cargo space crammed with large tubs of warm-weather gear, the Seltos was a squash and squeeze. As I wedged the last piece of luggage into the cargo area, it was apparent our skis would not fit and we'd need to instead grab rental gear on site. Given this Turbo S Seltos already has factory-installed roof rails, installing a ski rack would have solved our ski transport problem, but we didn't have time to source the parts in the short run up to the trip.

With skis left behind and my 3- and 5-year-old secured in the back seat, we headed north on California's scenic U.S. Route 395. Climbing the Sherwin Grade to its 7,000-foot summit challenged the fully loaded Seltos. But toggling the shifter to manual mode and spinning the Drive mode dial to Sport helped keep the dual-clutch transmission in a lower gear and the engine revs high so I could maintain a healthy 70 mph up the exceptionally long grade.

The next day, we loaded the Seltos with our rental skis and headed farther north to June Mountain for free child lift tickets and shorter lift lines. We used the Seltos' floormats and rear cargo sill to strap on our boots before heading up the lift to June's mid-mountain lodge. After a great day of skiing, we flipped on the seat heaters (part of the $1,500 AWD upgrade in the 2022 Seltos S but standard on higher trims) and headed back to our Airbnb for an après ski soak in the hot tub.

After three days in the mountains, we pointed the Seltos back toward Los Angeles and spun the drive mode dial to Economy to squeeze as much fuel economy out of the turbo-four as possible. The 300-plus-mile drive back to Southern California yielded observed fuel mileage of 29.7 mpg, per the onboard trip computer. Not bad for a fully loaded SUV. Now, if only we'd remembered to snap some pictures of it playing in the snow …