A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1083 entries
arête
A narrow, acute ridge of rock formed where two planes of a cliff intersect, like the corner edge of a building. Can be blunt and rounded or knife-sharp.
Etymology
From the French for “fishbone” or “spine.” In alpine climbing, the word migrated from anatomy to geology — the mountain’s backbone.
Notes
“By the time we reached the arête (Silberhorn) the surrounding mountains were lit, one by one, with flashes of crimson fire. The snowy summit of the Hochstetter Dome stood out from a sky of pale sea-green, merging almost imperceptibly to blue...”
— Freda Du Faur, The Conquest of Mount Cook and Other Climbs (1915)
— Freda Du Faur, The Conquest of Mount Cook and Other Climbs (1915)