Climb above the valley rim and the forest thins and the trees get shorter, then gives out near the top of the subalpine belt to open alpine ground. A windward ridge loses its trees first, and a sheltered hollow keeps a clump a little higher. Until now 30 m white firs stood on every summit, even at 3,800 m.
The high country has its own trees: lodgepole pines in the subalpine forest, whitebark pines above them in multi-trunk clumps that press down into knee-high wind mats at the line, red firs in the snowy upper forest and Jeffrey pines on the dry granite side. All can be chopped.
