North Elba lies under the High Peaks, where winter is long and serious and a night's snowfall gets measured in feet as often as inches. Olympic Tree & Land Management Inc plows through it — driveways and lots opened, banks pushed back before there is nowhere left to put anything, walks and steps cleared, sand and salt on the ice that forms with every thaw and refreeze. When the ground finally lets go in May, the work turns to mowing, trimming, edging and cleanups across a growing season that barely runs five months. Both halves suit this place: hard weather met head-on, then a short green stretch made to count. The routes run through Lake Placid and out toward Van Hoevenberg.