Hi Rick: Yes, I guess it would be hard to visualize for somebody with a lot of knowledge of pine because as you said, these are extremely flexible--so much so that one can almost tie the limbs in a knot. So, one has to ask himself: how can this be then? But there is a weakness; that is when the load becomes excessive the limbs begin to tear away and peel down from the main stem or trunk. All the cascading limbs you see here were all between 60 and 90 degrees upright (candlebra). And with all those new tiny branches in groups and long needles, they tend to catch and hold the real pasty snow rather than shed it as other long needle pine like 'White' or 'Norway' pine do, as an example. True, they do flex over and downward, but they catch and hold the snow from that angle too and it just doesn't slide off.
This particular one is the last of five that I planted in !982 around the patio. The other four were also damaged over the years from heavy wet snow and removed. With some of those, I tried tieing some limbs back in place and sealing them with grafting wax and grafting tape and staked support but I was only successfull on one limb. I should add, this particular example has had previous snow related damage as well.
I'll post or send you some pics when the snow melts off and I can get some good shots.
