the.com/scree
gravity's junk drawer, where mountains shed their skin one ankle-breaking step at a time
means A mass of loose, broken rock fragments littering a steep mountain slope, often forming a treacherous, sliding incline at the base of a cliff.
from From Old Norse 'skritha,' meaning a landslide or something that slides, related to 'skrítha,' to creep or slide. The word climbed down into northern English dialect along the same mountains it describes, and the sound of it — that hissing 'scree' — fittingly echoes the rattle of stones giving way underfoot.
- origin
- crumbled bedrock split by freezing, thawing water
- angle of repose
- piles steepen to about 35 degrees, then slide
- word root
- from Old Norse skritha, meaning landslide
- hiker's trick
- scree-skiing descends loose slopes in plunging strides
- ecosystem
- pikas farm hay among the shifting stones
for instance
monte rosa scree fields — unstable rock slopes in the swiss alps that regularly shift during climbing season