Smugglers Notch is a true gem of nature. It is a wintry playground that beckons ice climbers, backcountry ski­ers, snowshoers, dog walkers, a few snow­mobilers, soldiers training in the Army Mountain Warfare School, photographers, naturalists — they all come to romp in the Notch when the temperature drops and the snow and ice stay.

The black bears living there hunker down for their six-month nap. Ice creaks and moans as it forms in crags and cracks in the eons-old rock.

Outdoor recreation is but the latest in a long string of cold-weather activity taking place in the swatch of land between Stowe and Cambridge. In the early 1800s, when Thomas Jefferson enacted a trade embargo against Britain and what is now Canada, smugglers ran their contraband through the mountain pass. They often piled their goods high in horse-drawn sleighs. That’s how the name came to be.

Today, it’s a frosty wonderland spiced heavily with variety.

Since 1983, active and reserve Army members who train with the Army Mountain Warfare School spend two nights and three days in the Notch. Some 60 students at a time disappear into the rugged terrain, training for brutal cold-weather mountain missions on skis, snowshoes and crampons. They ice climb, rappel, navigate ropes courses and learn avalanche rescue techniques. It is not work for the weak.

For more about Smugglers Notch, including a picture spread showing the variety of winter activities that take place there, see the article “Winter Window” in the winter issue of Vermont Life.