Despite the warmer days last week, winter is still in full swing! The mountains are filled with outdoorsy people of all kinds recreating and adventuring on the snowy landscape. Indoors, winter offers a time for calm and reflection with the chance to enjoy a warm meal, hot beverages, a good book in front of a fire and quiet time with loved ones.

To capture this feeling and to celebrate the season of love, we're bringing back our #madshedlove photo contest where we invite you to share your favorite photos of winter in the Mad River Valley!

The challenge is all about the MAD River Valley, the WaterSHED that connects us, and the LOVE we have for this amazing place. Since #madshedlove first launched in 2017, we've had hundreds of people send us photos, videos, and stories – and we have turned around and shared them with you through our different platforms.

This is a photo contest with a spin – contest meets raffle! Rather than judging entries, we will draw for prizes from *photo entries (1 photo = 1 entry) so all submitted photos are eligible for the final prize drawings. This year, we'll have one contest per season with several prizes available for each seasonal competition. Send your photos here by March 15th to be entered into the raffle!

Our winter prizes have been generously donated by East Warren Community Market and Mad River Taste Place.

* The fine print - By sharing your photos, stories, and videos you are making them available for Friends of the Mad River to use in promotional print and web content. Credits will be given appropriately. There will be no royalties paid for this content and we will reserve the right to use this content in perpetuity. By submitting your photos, stories, and videos you agree to these conditions.

Did you know that Mad River Glen has a naturalist program with snowshoe trails that go up and into Stark Mountain, even connecting to the Long Trail?

Well, this past Saturday (February 10, 2024), Friends of the Mad River assembled a group of 9 community members to go on a snowshoe trek with the Director of the Naturalist Program at Mad River Glen, Sean Lawson. We saw many signs of bear activity visible right from the trails.

Starting on the far side of Schuss Pass, we put on our snowshoes and got to know each other a bit better with some introductions and light banter about the falling rain. We followed Sean up the ski slope and onto the Snowshoe Hare trail into an area of Stark Mountain dominated by birch, beech, and maple trees.