Into the WildChapter Fourteen: The Stikine Ice Cap Vocabulary abyss– a void; the depth of nothingness bald– a blank area unpopulated by vegetation bergschrund– a crevasse formed by a split in the ice carapace– a shell-like exterior coating chutzpah– nerve; confidence; arrogance cirque– an open area shaped like a half-circle and having steep sides comelier– more beautiful crampons– metal prongs used for climbing on ice crevasses– deep openings in a glacier or ice floe cyanide– a swift-acting poison dearth– a shortage of; lack diorite– a kind of rock that forms into small granular crystals dunning– persistent exfoliated– scrubbed free of debris existential scabs– figurative wounds made by repeated questions about the nature of man and his place in the world extricated– got out fjordlike– like the narrow fingers of the sea that characterize the coast of Norway frost feathers– thin, unstable accumulations of frost glaciologist– one who studies glaciers gunwale– the top of a boat’s side halogen– a group of elements including fluorine and chlorine inebriated– drunk inveigled– cadged and begged for Kerouac– the author of
