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The largest blocks—the "big-jump" talus—are at the bottom of the slope; the gravel at the top, which slides underfoot, is known as scree. Climbing it is arduous, but downhill scree running is enjoyable so long as one does not step on a thin veneer of scree overlying smooth, massive rock. Ridges: the buttress, rib, arete, knife-edge, and gendarme.—A buttress is a main bulwark of a peak. A rib separates the flutings in a wall having shallow avalanche chutes or chimneys. An arete is a sharp ridge, either between deep couloirs, or in a position where it is a principal support of a peak. A knife-edge, as the term implies, is sharper still and usually will be ragged, sections of the ridge having dropped away. If the clefts between sections are deep and sharp enough, the tower in be- |
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