Definition of "couloir" [cou•loir]

• A deep mountainside gorge or gully, especially in the Swiss Alps. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "To get down that tongue of rock to the lower snows of the couloir was a job that fairly brought us to the end of our tether."
• "The snow in the couloir is a delight, turned sugary because it has sat untouched on the hill for so long, and we whoop as we ski down it, stopping occasionally to take photos, before we eventually reach a snow-covered road in a forgotten side valley."
• "And it's prone to just halving off building-size chunks of ice and flushing down to the couloir, and if you're there at the wrong time, you're in big trouble."