The wind and harsh conditions create vivid swirls of bare wood, interspersed with the vibrant olive of the pine needles. Some of the trees seem barely alive, but still carry dense crowns of needles and cones. Patterns in the wood have built up over centuries of slow growth and weathering. The wood is so hard that it is polished rather than worn by ice, dust and wind. With the bark weathered and worn away, the wood beneath is bone white, but the trees are still thriving and growing in the brief high-altitude summer The trees sometimes seem to be straining to stay in the soil, their trunks leaning almost horizontally away from the winds.
Wind dictates everything on the mountain.
It roars over the top of Mt. Bross, the 22nd highest peak in the state at 14,172', and barrels down the ridge. To survive this blast, every tree has to be tough and resilient. Return to Lane's Home Page visitors to this site since 14 October 1997.