Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a sharp
ridge ofice betweencrevasses of aglacier
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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There were other ways to the summit of K2 via the north side from China, for example, or on a legendary, nearly impossible route on the south face called the Magic Line but the path up the Bottleneck and beneath the serac was the most established route, the easiest, and possibly the safest, as long as the serac remained stable.
'No Way Down' 2010
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A field of such pinnacles, jammed together in broken confusion, is called serac-ice
The Home of the Blizzard Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 Douglas Mawson 1920
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A serac is a column of ice formed by intercepting crevasses on a glacier.
Home | Mail Online 2009
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Within a few years the serac will fall forward, moving slowly with the current.
Into the Heart of the Ice Bill Streever 2011
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I back over the edge of the serac into empty space.
Into the Heart of the Ice Bill Streever 2011
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I back over the edge of the serac into empty space.
Into the Heart of the Ice Bill Streever 2011
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We de-rig and duck walk upslope, taking the easy way to the top of a serac.
Into the Heart of the Ice Bill Streever 2011
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Within a few years the serac will fall forward, moving slowly with the current.
Into the Heart of the Ice Bill Streever 2011
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We de-rig and duck walk upslope, taking the easy way to the top of a serac.
Into the Heart of the Ice Bill Streever 2011
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So the serac has collapsed, and it's ripped out the fixed ropes.
oroboros commented on the word serac
Cares in reverse.
July 22, 2007
john commented on the word serac
"The disaster took place after a huge serac broke and fell, sweeping away several climbers and stranding as many as a dozen mountaineers above a steep gully without ropes at a height of about 27,000 feet, not far from the summit."
The New York Times, Rescuers Wait to Reach K2 Survivor, by Salman Masood and Tom Rachman, August 6, 2008
The American Meteorological Society's glossary defines a serac as "A large block of ice, generally taller than broad, formed by the fracturing of ice. Most commonly found within an icefall, at the edge of an ice cliff, or at the margins of fast-moving ice."
August 5, 2008
reesetee commented on the word serac
Also sérac.
November 18, 2008
qroqqa commented on the word serac
Scurvy gnaws, steading smell, hearth's crackle.
Crabs, shingle, seracs on the icefall.
—Basil Bunting, Briggflatts
March 8, 2009
knitandpurl commented on the word serac
"On the way a serac falls and the waist of a glacier—a series of accumulation crevasses—crumbles."
The Future of Ice by Gretel Ehrlich, p 33 of the Vintage paperback edition
August 2, 2019