nunatak

noun

1. A mountain top or rocky element of a ridge that is surrounded by glacial ice but is not covered by ice; a peak protruding from the surface ice sheet.

   “We made for a slope close to the end of the island or nunatak, where Shackleton must have got up also; it is obviously the only place when you look at it from a commanding rise.”

   “Only a few lichens and mosses colonize the rocky walls of cirques and nunataks.”

   “The peak in whose lee you have chosen to set up your command post is far too regular in shape to be the nunatak you imagine it.”