head wall

American  

noun

1. a cliff or steep slope rising at one end of a glaciated valley.

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Etymology

Origin of head wall

First recorded in 1640–1650 for an earlier sense “retaining wall built in front or on top of a structure”; current sense dates from 1790–1800

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

head wall

On the head wall, they found only a few inches, and they were able to slide from one switchback to the next lower, thus cutting off the turns and descending with great rapidity.

From Boy Scouts in Glacier Park The Adventures of Two Young Easterners in the Heart of the High Rockies by Eaton, Walter Prichard

A 1-2-4 concrete using crusher run stone below 1 in. in size was used for the lining and portal head wall coping and a 1-3-6 concrete for the portal head walls proper.

From Concrete Construction Methods and Costs by Gillette, Halbert Powers

Just to the left, only a mile away, Tom, is the top of the Iceberg Lake head wall.

From Boy Scouts in Glacier Park The Adventures of Two Young Easterners in the Heart of the High Rockies by Eaton, Walter Prichard

I can start before daylight, get to the head wall at sunrise, be over the pass and down the other side before noon, and have five hours of light to make twenty miles.”

From Boy Scouts in Glacier Park The Adventures of Two Young Easterners in the Heart of the High Rockies by Eaton, Walter Prichard

The trips we tell about are all real trips, and if you go to Glacier Park you can take them all—all, that is, except, perhaps, the climb up the head wall of Iceberg Lake.

From Boy Scouts in Glacier Park The Adventures of Two Young Easterners in the Heart of the High Rockies by Eaton, Walter Prichard