A suite of birds resides year-round on the Arctic tundra or on the taiga, the habitat of sparse trees just south of the treeless tundra. These birds include great gray owls, snowy owls and common redpolls.

It was exactly 70 years ago when Roger Page taught his first ski lessons as an instructor on a little rope-tow ski slope in Leominster, Mass.

The soft light of dawn is filtering through the cabin windows. Despite the winter chill outside, the room is cool but not cold. I should get up and stoke the woodstove, but it’s no easy task when you’re toasty warm beneath flannel sheets and a down comforter. Instead I lay content for a while, listening to the quiet of the place, and admiring the artifacts adorning the log walls, which have comfortably sheltered many an outdoorsperson since the late 1800s.