Tires Continental or Maxxis

Not on your list but the best all season is the continental dws.

Well balanced and smooth at any speed. Tires are in great shape with almost new thread depth.

I have a set of the new Continental extremecontact sport ready to throw on very soon. These tires were designed to compete with the new Michelin summer tires. Tirerack did a performance test on the top summer tires and they performed just under the new Michelin PS4S but for way cheaper.

Most people conclude that Grand Prix are the best mix of puncture resistance, weight, grip and speed to sort of be the industry standard.

On my XC hardtail I have a Maxxis 2.4 Ardent on the front, and a Maxxis 2.2 Ikon on the rear. It is a great combo so far.

I just put some 2.25" Maxxis Ardent TR EXOs on my Trek 29er and they have been awesome so far. Tons of grip compared to the bontragers I had (cheaper ones that came with my bike).

Maxxis all the way. Seem to be the best combo of grip, price, durability, and weight.

Your trails sound pretty similar to what I ride. I have a set of Ardent 2.25s that I really like.

I did switch out the stock rubber to DWS06 @ the 12k mark and lost a little on the responsiveness on the onset. Now, as the tires have warn, it has gotten a little better, but still not as nice as the stock rubber. Hope this helps.

My Conti's sound like a 4x4 going down the road