Granitic dust soil at high altitude evaporates snow and never holds water

Evidence

The soil here, as elsewhere in the neighborhood, is nearly everywhere coarse, grey, granitic dust, produced probably by the disintegration of the surrounding mountains. It does not hold water, and is never wet in any weather. There are no thaws here. The snow mysteriously disappears by rapid evaporation. Oats grow, but do not ripen, and, when well advanced, are cut and stacked for winter fodder. Potatoes yield abundantly, and, though not very large, are of the best quality, mealy throughout. … The time between winter and winter is very short, and the flowery growth and blossom of a whole year are compressed into two months. Here are dandelions, buttercups, larkspurs, harebells, violets, roses, blue gentian, columbine, painter’s brush, and fifty others, blue and yellow predominating; and though their blossoms are stiffened by the cold every morning, they are starring the grass and drooping over the brook long before noon, making the most of their brief lives in the sunshine. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 279

Categorization

• XREF: This compressed two-month flowering — whole alpine year crammed into summer — parallels the extreme-season compression themes in ‘The Soundscape’ and silence/soundscape readings.
• SEED: An essay angle: how altitude and granitic soil compress an entire year’s biological production into weeks, a natural model of extreme time-compression.