Heavy Snows Have Long-Term Effect on Some Vegetation

How would you like to trudge through here on snowshoes? 

Loop de hoop! In November, we experienced heavy, wet snows that bent flexible shrubs and trees over forming a hoop.  Add more heavy snow, pinning the top to the ground with thawing and freezing rain on top and you have a hoop that will last all winter.  In fact some of this vegetation will remain in this form permanently.  Alder and hazel shrubs and even slender birch and saplings of all kinds were vulnerable. If you are a careful observer, you will occasionally see historical evidence of this kind of phenomena which occured in the past.  Stressed trees may survive and express their 'bent' for years to come. As the proverb says, " As the sapling is bent, so the tree grows."