Abstract: A tread profile for winter tires of motor vehicles, in particular vehicles of the pickup truck or light truck class, includes at least four circumferentially extending longitudinal grooves and transverse grooves demarcating profile blocks. The transverse grooves extend helically with an approximately Z-shaped kink in the middle of the width of the tread. The longitudinal grooves have a given groove width and have individual segments between two of the transverse grooves. Each of the segments are staggered alternatingly to the left and to the right relative to one another by at least one-half of the given groove width.