Sentence:  [H]e's hoping the rains will hold off just a bit longer—at least till they get through the mountains. Of course it's going to be bad whenever the clouds let loose, but up here pussyfooting along the perimeter of toothy <WSD>cirques</WSD> and dead drops of anywhere from eighty to three hundred feet, it would be a disaster. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A curved depression in a mountainside with steep walls, forming the end of a valley.