Portal:Mountains

A cirque (French: [siʁk]; from the Latin word circus) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic: coire, meaning a pot or cauldron) and cwm (Welsh for 'valley'; pronounced [kʊm]). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform arising from fluvial erosion.

The concave shape of a glacial cirque is open on the downhill side, while the cupped section is generally steep. Cliff-like slopes, down which ice and glaciated debris combine and converge, form the three or more higher sides. The floor of the cirque ends up bowl-shaped, as it is the complex convergence zone of combining ice flows from multiple directions and their accompanying rock burdens. Hence, it experiences somewhat greater erosion forces and is most often overdeepened below the level of the cirque's low-side outlet (stage) and its down-slope valley (backstage). If the cirque is subject to seasonal melting, the floor of the cirque most often forms a tarn (small lake) behind a natural dam, which marks the downstream limit of the glacial overdeepening. The dam itself can be composed of moraine, glacial till, or a lip of the underlying bedrock. (Full article...)

A view from Mount Kashimayari

The Hida Mountains (飛騨山脈, Hida Sanmyaku), or Northern Alps (北アルプス, Kita Arupusu), is a Japanese mountain range which stretches through Nagano, Toyama and Gifu prefectures. A small portion of the mountains also reach into Niigata Prefecture. William Gowland coined the phrase "Japanese Alps" during his time in Japan, but he was only referring to the Hida Mountains when he used that name. The Kiso and Akaishi mountains received the name in the ensuing years. (Full article...)

A cinder cone or scoria cone is a steep, conical landform of loose pyroclastic fragments, such as volcanic ash, clinkers, or scoria that has been built around a volcanic vent. The pyroclastic fragments are formed by explosive eruptions or tall Hawaiian-style lava fountains from a single, typically cylindrical, vent.

As the gas-charged lava is blown violently into the air, it breaks into small fragments that solidify and fall as either scoria which is also referred to cinder and clinker around the vent to form a cone that is often symmetrical, with slopes between 30° and 40° and a nearly circular base. Most cinder cones have a bowl-shaped crater at the summit. (Full article...)

Belay glasses are eyeglasses with prismatic lenses that are used by belayers in rock climbing to avoid the neck strain associated with belaying. (Full article...)

An athlete mogul skiing at Waterville Valley Resort

Mogul skiing, commonly shortened to moguls, is a freestyle skiing competition consisting of one timed run of free skiing on a steep, bumpy course, stressing technical turns, aerial maneuvers and speed. Internationally, the sport is contested at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships, and at the Winter Olympic Games.

Moguls are a series of bumps on a piste formed when skiers push snow into mounds as they do sharp turns. This tends to happen naturally as skiers use the slope but they can also be constructed artificially. Once formed, a naturally occurring mogul tends to grow as skiers follow similar paths around it, further deepening the surrounding grooves known as troughs. Since skiing tends to be a series of linked turns, moguls form together to create a bump field. (Full article...)

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