Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
spot these features when you visit other alpine areas. Study glacier exhibits to train
your eye to recognize what you're seeing.
Glaciers are big and blunt, so they make simple, large-scale marks on the land-
scape. If a valley is U-shaped, like Chamonix's (with steep sides and a rounded
base), it's probably been scoured out by a glacier. (California's Yosemite Valley is
another classic example.)
A
cirque
(Frenchfor“circus”)istheamphitheater-likedepressioncarvedoutat
the upper part of a valley by a glacier. If two adjacent cirques erode back close to
each other,a sharp steep-sided ridge forms, called an
arête
(French for“fishbone”).
Cirques and arêtes are common in mountains that have had glaciers. More rarely,
when three or more cirques erode toward one another, a pyramidal peak is cre-
