Canadian Alpine Journal/Volume 1/Number 1/Glossary of Mountaineering Terms
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GLOSSARY OF MOUNTAINEERING TERMS
Their Meanings as Used in Literature Relating to
the Alpine Tracts of Canada.
Compiled by Arthur O. Wheeler
Aiguille—A needle-like rock-tower or pinnacle, isolated from a central mass.
Alpenstock—A long stout staff, shod with a sharp steel point, used by mountaineers.
Alps, Alplands—The open grasslands, meadows or slopes above timber-line; usually clad wtih heath, heather and beautiful mountain wildflowers.
Amphitheatre—A natural circular area, surrounded by rising ground, usually rock or snow masses.
Arête—The sharp ridge, edge or rocky spur of a mountain; used in connection with snow as well as rock.
Avalanche—Falling bodies of snow or ice, loosened from their hold by the heat of the sun.
Berg—The integral rock mass rising above a snowfield; also, in the absence of snow, above the slopes of debris, or the alplands at its base.
Bergschrund—The crevasse formed between the edge of a body of snow and a rock berg; one of the chief difficulties and dangers to be overcome in mountaineering.
Boulder Clay—A stiff, tenacious clay containing boulders of all sizes; found in the moraines of a glacier; corresponds to "till."
Cache—A hiding place; a store of provisions, etc., hidden for future use.
Cirque—A circle of rock peaks.
Col—The crest of a neck or pass between two mountain peaks, usually though not necessarily covered with snow.
Confluent Glacier—One, tributary to a trunk glacier; generally flowing from a greater elevation.
Cornice, Snow Cornice—An overhanging edge of snow at the crest of a mountain peak or ridge, caused by drifting.
Couloir—A steeply ascending gully, gorge or ravine in the side of a mountain or rock peak; generally, though not necessarily, filled with snow.
Crampon—A steel frame, set with sharp spikes, strapped to the boot to facilitate climbing on ice.
Crevasse—A fissure or crack formed in a snow-field or glacier; caused by non-elasticity of the ice when moving down the uneven surface of its rocky bed. Longitudinal crevasses are formed in the direction of the flow; transverse crevasses at right angles to the flow.
Divide—The height of land between two drainage basins. The watershed.
Dry Glacier—The portion of a glacier showing clear ice through melting of the snow covering.
Firn—Accumulated snow while in a granular condition and before it has been consolidated into the ice of a glacier; corresponds to the névé or snow-field forming the source of a glacier.
Forefoot—The part of a dry glacier adjoining the terminal moraine.
Gendarme—Name applied to an isolated rock tower or pinnacle, separated from the mass of which it had originally been a part.
Glacier—The form in which snow falling on the higher parts of a mountian range, above snowline, finds its way down into the valleys. The ice overflows from a firn or névé.
Glacier Table—A block of stone, a boulder, supported by a column of ice which its shade has preserved from melting; generally seen on a dry glacier.
Glissade—To slide down a steep snow-slope; performed sitting or standing according to the conditions of the snow. An ice-axe or alpenstock is used to steer by.
Grat—An edge or sharp ridge; corresponds to "arête."
Hanging Glacier—An overhanging glacier, formed in a crevice on the cliffs of a mountain side.
Hanging Valley—A tributary valley opening high up on the side of a main valley; often carved out by glacial erosion. It is generally marked by an abrupt step at the mouth, due to the eroding agency having continued its work in the main valley long after it had ceased in the hanging valley.
Height of Land—The watershed between two drainage areas. A crest from which the ground slopes in opposite directions; corresponds to "divide" or "watershed."
Hoodoos—The name given in Western Canada to certain grotesque columns, the products of eroison, left standing on the slopes of mountains and deep gulches.
Ice-Axe, Ice-Pick—A tough wooden staff, about 3 ft. 6 in. long, with an adze-shaped steel head at one end and a sharp spike at the other. Opposite the adze, the head is drawn to a point, sometimes set with teeth. It is used to cut steps in steep ice or snow-slopes.
Ice-Fall—The dry glacier.
Langthal—A long valley. The depression between a moraine and the mountain side, usually filled with snow.
Massif—A central mountain-mass. The dominating part of a range of mountains.
Mittlegrat—A middle edge or ridge, as for instance: the rock-edge between two snow-fields or parts of a glacier.
Moraines—The rock debris transported by a glacier and deposited at its base, along its sides, or between two separate ice-flows. They are respectively named: terminal, lateral, and medial moraines.
Moulin—A nearly vertical shaft or circular cavity worn in the ice of a glacier by a surface rivulet falling into a crevasse, down which it pours in a sub-glacial cascade.
Névé—The accumulated snow forming the source of a glacier; corresponds to "snow-field" or "firn."
Nunatak—A crest or ridge of rock appearing above the surface of an ice-field or glacier.
Reentrant—Rocks are spoken of as being at a reentrant angle, i.e., their faces slope inwards from the perpendicular.
Roche Moutonnées—A group of scattered knobs of rock, rounded and smoothed by glacial action; so called from their resemblance to a flock of sheep lying down.
Rock-Fall, Rock-Slide—An accumulation of broken rock fallen from the cliffs above, through disintegration of their masses; often of considerable extent.
Rucksack—A bag, especially adapted to the back, for carrying the impedimenta of a mountain climber.
Schrund—A crack or crevasse in the ice of a glacier.
Scree—Loose, broken shale at the foot of a cliff; slopes of debris fallen from above through disintegration.
Séracs—Fantastic pillars of ice formed on a glacier by the intersection of longitudinal and transverse crevasses where the grade of its rock bed is broken by ledges or steps.
Snow-Mushrooms—Accumulation of snow in the woods on trees, stumps, etc., resembling giant fungi of the species named. They are seen of great size and variety along the Canadian Pacific railway through the Selkirks.
Snout—The most advanced part of a dry glacier; corresponds to "forefoot."
Striae, Striation—Grooves, or scratches cut in rocks or boulder clay by the action of ice moving down an incline.
Summit—The highest point of a mountain or peak. The lowest part of a mountain pass. The highest crest of a ridge.
Talus—The mass of rock fragments lying at the base of a mountain cliff, formed by the accumulation of pieces brought down from above by the action of gravity, frost, rain, etc.; equivalent to "scree" or "debris."
Till—A stiff clay containing boulders of all sizes up to several tons weight; often smoothed and striated by glacial action.
Tongue—The extreme end of a glacier; corresponds to "forefoot" or "snout."
Watershed—The divide between two drainage systems or catchment areas. The height of land between streams flowing in opposite directions.
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