Location

We live in the town of Waterbury in Northern Vermont, where our house sits down in the Winooski Valley, 4,000 vertical feet below the peaks of the Green Mountains.  Running from north to south through the state, the spine of the Greens forms an impressive wall that serves as a formidable barrier to moisture coming in from the west and northwest, where saturated air gets lifted up and over the mountains to deliver more than 300 inches of snowfall each season.  Often, this snow comes in the form of what the locals refer to as Champlain Powder™, an extremely dry, light, and airy snow that enables the ultimate powder skiing experience where one is enveloped in the snow as they ski.  Because of our location nearly in line with the spine of the Greens, even our house in the valley receives an average of roughly 160 inches of snow a season.  We track this snowfall very carefully, monitoring not just the amount, but other parameters such as density and snowflake structure that affect the quality of the nearby skiing.  Our local ski resort, Bolton Valley, is tucked in a box canyon just up above us, so the type of snow we receive at the house is often a good representation of the snow that fell on the mountain.  For more details about our location’s special geography, and how we monitor the local winter weather, head to our snowfall page.

From 2001 to 2006 we also lived in the town of Hamilton in the Bitterroot Valley of Western Montana.  You can learn much more about the area on our Hamilton, Montana page.