Underexposed: Mad River Valley, VT

The name “Vermont” comes from two French words, vert, which means green, and mont, which means mountain, so giving it the nickname “The Green Mountain State” is a bit on the nose. However, of the several images that come to mind when thinking longingly about America’s 14th state, I think the abundant lush green peaks and ridgelines that seem to be squeezed into a fairly tidy 9,600 square miles sit at the forefront. 

By most mountainous standards, the Greens are fairly modest in scale, with only 5 summits throughout its 250 mile long north-south journey topping out at over 4,000 above sea level. Several other summits throughout the Appalachian Mountains eclipse the heights reached in the Green Mountains, and of course many of the mountains throughout the American west sit on a mile-high plateau before they even begin to reach for the sky. But after nearly half of a billion years, you can forgive them for having lost a bit off of the top.

For everyone who has ever fallen in love with these mountains, it’s never been about scale.