This study reports on in-depth case studies of dzud (extreme cold weather during winter, subsequent to a very dry summer) impacts and responses. Focus groups, key informant interviews, a household survey, and photovoice, were used to document individual and community experiences with dzud, and identify the factors that make some households and communities more vulnerable, and some less vulnerable, to the impacts of dzud, and the strategies that were most effective in responding to dzud. It was found that dzud is a complex, social-ecological phenomenon, and vulnerability to dzud is a function of interacting physical, biological, socio-economic, and institutional factors. Vulnerability is affected by both local and cross-scale factors. Actions that are adaptive and reduce vulnerability for one group at one spatial or temporal scale, may be mal-adaptive and increase vulnerability for another group, or at a different scale. Communities that are well prepared for dzud at the household level may suffer disproportionate losses if exposure is increased by in-migrating livestock from other areas. The lessons of dzud for actors at all levels of social organization, point to the need for increased responsibility and leadership by individual actors, be they households, herder groups, or local governments, as well as the critical importance to all actors (including donor and aid organizations) of reaching out, communicating and cooperating with others within and across sectors and scales.