Walk the high country 150 to 500 m below the treeline, on the gentle benches between the forest. Bare, ice-polished granite slabs show again where the ice-age glaciers scoured the ground, the way Desolation, the Tuolumne domes and the Cathedral benches look. The round before had covered almost all gentle granite with soil. About 6 percent of gentle subalpine ground is open slab now, close to the real share of 5 percent, and most of it sits where the ice slid.
The pattern of rock and forest is fitted to fourteen real Sierra survey areas. Forest near the treeline still follows the measured canopy: flats and benches are closed, and steep slabs stay open. New worlds only.
