Thanks to everyone who sent in a Mountain Story. Here’s one from DART subscriber Greg Smith, of Bluffton, SC and Westcliffe, CO:

Cloud caps are far less common here in Westcliffe, where we feel rich if we get more than a foot of moisture in an entire year. But we look out, from our Wet Mountain Valley, on nearly the entire Colorado section of the Sangre de Cristos range, including a half-dozen fourteeners, and as many more that top 13,000 feet. If we need variety, we gaze north to the Collegiate range, which includes some particularly hazardous volcanic cones. Turn around, and we see the less dramatic Wet Mountains to the east. To the south are the active volcanoes of Spanish Peaks. 

While our peaks don't rise directly from sea level—the hay fields of our valley floor are some 7,600 feet and our house is just over 7,900 feet above the distant oceans—they are hardly less dramatic. They harbor aspens, spruce, fir and pine; rushing streams and wildflower meadows. Cross them and you'll find yourself in the amazing Great Sand Dunes. Our eastern side of the valley is arid, brown for much of the year. The Sangre side is green with the flows from melting snow. In July, the smell of fresh-cut hay nearly overwhelms. And the winds that whip down the hillside would impress residents of the infamous Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

I've attached a picture from late September, with our tiny town and its planted trees set before the aspen-yellow-streaked slopes of Hermit Peak (among others), 13,264 feet.

So dear readers, please send me your mountain stories, with photos or drawings, to further liven up the winter season.