Serac

Seracs are towers of glacial ice that form at the broken edges to stronger side slopes of glaciers. They are formed by the interaction of longitudinal and transverse strain and therefore usually occur together with or near the longitudinal and transverse crevasses.

Séracs can achieve at the highest mountains of the Himalayas heights of more than 200 m. When climbers are feared because they can collapse unexpectedly.

A classic example of a threatened by seracs route is the Südanstieg through the Khumbu Icefall on the southern side of Mount Everest. At this distance by 600 meters measured Icefall already about 20 people came through crevasses and collapsing seracs to death.

The name " serac " was coined in 1779 by Horace - Bénédict de Saussure and is derived from the cheese of the same name.