Hiking the Blue Lake trail a few weeks ago, the landscape is almost overwhelming: alpine lakes, bluebells growing thick in the island between two streams, small tundra brooks bordered by yellow marsh marigolds, waterfalls that spread across the hillside, columbines hugging a cliff above the creek, surrounded by tall rocky peaks and, at the top, the icy blue waters of Blue Lake, icebergs bumping against the western shore and a waterfall spilling 20 feet or so over the rock lip and into the lake.
Yet, coming back down from the lake, what I kept noticing was the krummholz, the gnarled trees found above timberline that endure nine months of snow, winds that can be above 100 miles an hour. To survive, the krummholz (a German word meaning “crooked wood”) accommodate themselves to this harsh climate: massing in thick clumps, finding protection in large groups, and growing branches and needles on the less wind-exposed side of the tree. Rather than fighting the elements, these trees have learned to bend with the wind and yield to something more powerful than them.
While the lake freezes over, the pikas and marmots go into hibernation for nine months, and the flowers are long-forgotten memories, the krummholz soldier on through the winter.
For most people, these trees are unseen, part of the backdrop, something that fills in the landscape around the peaks, lakes, streams and wildflowers. When I was younger they were invisible to me, too. But now that I’m getting older, huffing and puffing up the trail and gingerly taking careful steps on the way down among the boulders so as not to hurt my creaky knees, they call to me.
Weathered survivors, they’re not pretty like the flowers or dazzling like the mountains; many are stooped like me, although a few stand proudly above the others, somehow possessing more strength or fortitude—or maybe they’re supported by the ones that surround it.
Like these trees, I’ve learned to yield, to bend with life rather than fight it
There were an astonishing number of wildflowers this year--I've never seen them in these numbers this late. Krummholz is a new word for me, I love that name [sounds like a fairy tale character] and these wonderful adaptive trees.
Posted by: shoneysien | August 17, 2014 at 07:17 AM
Love the very descriptive first paragraph. And the relation of the krummholz trees and life in the last paragraph.
Posted by: Brent Zeinert | August 20, 2014 at 03:55 AM