Mountain Features

The forest of solid evergreens that extends from about 9000' to about 11,500' feet in Colorado. The forest ends where the Alpine tundra begins.

At around 11,500' in Colorado, the climate becomes too harsh for trees to grow: extreme cold for most of the year and high winds make for a very short growing season. Tundra is a Russian word. The alpine tundra may look barren but grasses, sedges, lichens and many species of wildflowers manage to survive here, even though the growing season is very short.

Where the forest ends and the Alpine tundra begins. Look at the mountains across the valley; notice how treeline fluctuates along the mountainsides.

German for crooked wood, krummholz are evergreen trees stunted in their struggle to grow at the highest limits of their tolerance for the climate. They are the last evergreens to grow at the edge of the tundra. These bent crooked trees may look like shrubs, but can be hundreds of years old. They can be englemann spruce or sub alpine fir.

Cleared lines down through the dense timber caused by avalanches. The dry climate of the West can create a lot of instability in the snowpack. Avalanches tend to follow the same paths and can be so powerful that they can snap off trees 2 and 3 feet in diameter. Trees do not get a chance to grow back in major paths.

Huge bowl-like depressions at the mountain-tops formed by the hollowing out action of glaciers thousands of years ago.