As much as some people say they've had good luck with Subaru's, I'll never own another one. My wifes 2015 Forester started burning oil at about 40k miles or so. She took it in, and the service department claimed it was her / our fault for just not checking the oil. I started monitoring it, and it was burning a quart every thousand miles or so. Took it back in after doing a bunch of internet research and seeing that alot of people had the same problem and the SAME service guy then fessed up to a known issue. We had to work with Subaru corporate to get it covered under warranty, but they basically replaced the entire short block. After dealing with this, start talking to neighbors, co-workers, etc. that also have Subaru's. and just in that small circle, several people had encountered this problem, or other fairly significant problems with fairly new Subaru's. I'll never own another one that's for sure.
To answer your original question, any good crossover AWD is going to be good but it really depends on where you end up. If you are going to be in a town or city, its not going to be a much of a concern. Just get a AWD SUV. If you are really going to be out in a rural area at higher elevation, you need to give it more thought. You'll want ground clearance, AWD or 4x4, dedicated snow tires, maybe even studded. Really just depends on where you think you'll end up.
