Limber Pine (1980 / 1973)

 

Limber Pine - San Gabriel Mountains  1980

Limber Pine Root - San Gabriel Mountains  1973

Stop a moment and listen to the whistle of the mountain wind it its short, stubby, thick needles. They are lifting their voices in a tale of their life that is all fierce endurance. The sort of winter wind that would get into the headlines of newspapers if it blew down below, blows here for days and weeks, raising the voices of the Pines to a high sustained keening note. Snows that would stop all traffic on our roads and streets weigh down its branches. But they do not break, for this a Limber Pine whose long boughs and twigs can bend and bend without snapping. A tree better adapted to endure timberline conditions does not exist. — Donald Culross Peattie

Both photos were taken while hiking with my brother up to the Mount Baden-Powell summit in Southern California. The root picture came first, in 1973; I used a Nikon F with Panatomic-X film. 

So I knew of these trees' existence when I hiked back up in 1980. I wanted to take some photos using larger 120 roll film, so for that trip I managed to carry up a large Mamiya RB67 medium format camera, used for the top photo.