Donna Weinbrecht is the perfect advertisement for East Coast skiing. After teaching herself how to ski bumps on the vast mogul fields of Killington’s brutal Outer Limits trail, Weinbrecht went on to win Olympic gold — the first ever given for freestyle skiing — at the 1992 games in Albertville, France. She competed in two more Olympic Games and, by the time her long competitive career came to a close in the late 1990s, Weinbrecht had racked up a World Championship win, seven U.S. championship titles and 46 World Cup victories.... Read more

Hardly anyone notices the piece of wood above the entrance to Burton Snowboards’ prototype facility emblazoned with the words “Top Secret.” That’s to be expected. To see the mysterious printing, you’d have to crane your neck back and stare up at the awning that soars over the door to the factory. That’s why Burton tour guide and archivist Todd Kohlman points it out for visitors. Then he tells them the story behind the words. Because you have to understand the story before you understand the place.... Read more

Neale Lunderville hasn’t had a lot of time to spare lately. Since Gov. Peter Shumlin appointed him Vermont’s Irene Recovery Officer, his days have been chock-a-block with meetings, briefings, interviews and tours of flood-affected regions around the state. Most mornings, Lunderville is up at five and is lucky to get to bed before midnight. Even eating has had to take a backseat. To stave off hunger, Lunderville carries around a bag of apples in his Volvo, crunching on one as he dashes from one obligation to another.... Read more

Andy Murphy’s classroom is a little different from what you might find at a traditional school. There are no desks in tidy clusters, no teacher’s chair and no blackboard (or whiteboard). Actually, his “classroom” isn’t a classroom at all.... Read more

It was a tough spring for Adam Hausmann. Floodwater seeped into his fields in Burlington’s Intervale five times over two months, drowning hundreds of strawberry, raspberry and blueberry plants, along with grapevines and young cherry trees. His hoop house and field strawberry crops were swept away, and his summer and fall raspberry varieties succumbed to root rot. His table grapes, just coming into production, were wiped out.... Read more

It’s 9:30 on a Sunday morning, and Brenda Hartshorn is putting the finishing touches on an evening meal. It’s odd timing, but Hartshorn has a date with a motorcycle and some fall foliage and wants to get this task out of the way.... Read more

Her son’s college diploma and a stack of photos from his recent graduation were all that Pam Mack was able to grab before floodwaters inundated her Waterbury home. The Winooski River rose at a rate faster than anyone in the town could remember, and, before Mack knew it, her rental home on Route 2 held four and a half feet of water. In the family’s backyard, where a shed full of her son’s belongings once stood, there is now a river.... Read more

More than a week after Tropical Storm Irene submerged the first floor of her family’s Moretown home, Meg Schultz is still cleaning up. She got rid of all her possessions that couldn’t be salvaged — soaked picture frames, sodden sofas, silt-caked books — immediately after the floodwater receded, and now she’s moving on to the bigger items. Mud-covered appliances sit in her driveway waiting to be picked up and hauled away. Soon she will be ripping up much of the flooring in her 200-year-old farmhouse.... Read more

Kathleen Byrne will never forget what she saw the day after Tropical Storm Irene charged through Vermont. A young man, barely 18, rumbled up Route 100 in a bright-yellow backhoe, determined to repair the bridge just south of the junction with Route 125. He had been operating that rig since he was a schoolboy, and no one questioned his fitness for the task.... Read more

Dean Gray might be the most traveled man in Burlington. Since 1999 the photographer, better known as Blotto, has logged more than 1 million air miles out of Burlington International Airport. He learned he was in the million-mile club when he received a card from United Airlines congratulating him on his accomplishment.... Read more