In winter these are amongst the snowiest mountains in Alaska, with upwards of 80 feet of snow falling on the peaks.

BBC: Journey into the Alaskan wild

Now they face their third exhausting winter in the mountains.

ECONOMIST: A gleam of hope for peace in miserable, war-weary Chechnya

The sky was gray near the tops of the mountains, as gray as a dark day in winter.

NEWYORKER: Beginners

Relaxing in the lagoon, surrounded by steam, snow (in the winter) and black mountains of lava rock, is a breathtaking and uniquely Icelandic experience.

BBC: Iceland��s Cinderella story

In New York's Adirondack Mountains, inmates break ice on a frozen lake to make a giant winter palace.

WSJ: NY inmates help build ice palace in Adirondacks