Surface refreeze nuggets turned up by our skiing, bounded and bounced down all around us, as we skied the moving surface. It was like confetti in our own personal ticker tape parade.
Endangered Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) are a subalpine species, growing right to the limits of treeline, often in clumps like this, huddled together for shelter. Cousins to the Bristlecone Pines, the oldest trees on earth, the Whitebarks too live very slowly to great ages, patiently thriving in the extremities of their chosen home, like some other folks I know.