Mountain Terms

[guinness]

I’m reading a few books on Elk hunting and I keep running into a few mountain terms I’m not familiar with. I am hoping if I list them some of you can explain the term and maybe even post a pic for example.
Drainage, chute, slide, pass, handle, creek bottom. I feel like i'm forgetting a few and will post as I recall them.


Thanks to anyone that contributes.

 

[406LIFE]

Drainage: the valley formed between two ridges. Usually has a creek in the bottom. Think how water would drain out of that area, that would be a drainage.

Chute: I'd say this is a narrow passage down hill that is rocky and used for travel.

Slide: this would be like a chute, but a wider area. Could be whole mountainside. This is rock that has come loose and slid down the mountain. usually devoid of vegation.

Pass: this is a low point in a ridgeline that you can travel through easily. Not as important today with road system, but back in the day it was only was to cross mountain range.

Handle: what you grab on the broom...I have no idea.

Creek bottom. At the bottom of the drainage there is a creek. That area is flat, narrow, full of vegetation and has a creek flowing through it.

 

[Ben Long]

Where I live, a "chute" tends to be an avalanche chute -- a narrow vertical strip of brushy vegetation left in the path of an avalanche. These can be important feeding areas where browse species have a chance to grow outside the shade of trees. A "slide" could be the same thing (a snowslide or a rockslide as 406Life points out.)

A pass is not only important for human travel, but elk travel. Elk will naturally cross a ridgeline at its low point. (Where I'm from that is also called a "saddle." Passes and saddles are natural places to ambush elk moving from one "drainage" to another.

Likewise, no clue on "handle." Panhandle of Idaho, maybe?

 

[Straight Arrow]

I think I've got a "handle" on elk hunting. Hike up the drainage for two miles, climb up the steepest chute to the ridge and cross the pass (saddle) over to the rock slide. Sidehill down the rockslide to the creek bottom, then climb another chute to the next ridge saddle. Repeat that for three more iterations and you will find elk ... or other hunters ... or a road.