page_title: Arête
hierarchical_section_title: Arête
caption_attribution_description: English: A four segment panoramic image of Crib Goch facing east in Snowdonia National Park, Wales. Taken with a Canon 5D and 24-105mm f/4L lens at 24mm.
context_page_description: An arête is a narrow ridge of rock which separates two valleys. It is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys. Arêtes can also form when two glacial cirques erode headwards towards one another, although frequently this results in a saddle-shaped pass, called a col. The edge is then sharpened by freeze-thaw weathering, and the slope on either side of the arête steepened through mass wasting events and the erosion of exposed, unstable rock. The word ‘arête’ is actually French for edge or ridge; similar features in the Alps are often described with the German equivalent term Grat.
  Where three or more cirques meet, a pyramidal peak is created.
context_section_description: An arête is a narrow ridge of rock which separates two valleys. It is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys. Arêtes can also form when two glacial cirques erode headwards towards one another, although frequently this results in a saddle-shaped pass, called a col. The edge is then sharpened by freeze-thaw weathering, and the slope on either side of the arête steepened through mass wasting events and the erosion of exposed, unstable rock. The word ‘arête’ is actually French for edge or ridge; similar features in the Alps are often described with the German equivalent term Grat.
  Where three or more cirques meet, a pyramidal peak is created.
caption: Crib Goch, Snowdonia, is an arête.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2009:11:07 21:29:04", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "418", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3379", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:08:26 11:07:20", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:08:26 11:07:20", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5623", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2800"}