Mt St Helens 2-13-22

[sgyoung]

I took advantage of the blue bird conditions on Sunday morning and went up MSH. For those who are true peak baggers I'll concede up front that I contented myself with the crater rim (but did tag the summit on my previous trip, so whatever).

This was my first time in winter conditions and it was fun exploring the worm flows route. The extra ~1000 feet of gain, compared to monitor ridge, were noticeable. I am certainly in mid-winter couch potato shape, but still made it up to the rim in 4h 12m, which includes stopping to fix my crampons a million times and taking a sandwich break. Made it back to the car in a bit under 3 hours, so round up to an 8 hour day including time enjoying the views from the rim.

Things to note:
(1) There were some pseudo-crevasses at around 7500 feet. The largest was maybe a foot wide and fairly deep.
(2) Snow starts right away but the ski trails are packed down nicely. I put crampons on from the start because it a bit slippery when I started at 7:15am but didn't really need them until above the tree line.
(3) The snow got very soft on the way down, especially below 7000 feet or so, and I post holed like an idiot until back in the trees. That part was annoying, but otherwise it was a beautiful day.
(4) There was no cornice at the crater rim. However, there was a noticeable one at the true summit.

Here's pictures

[Chip Down]

"Crevasse" near 7500. Is this were the remnants of the shoestring glacier can still be seen in summer?

Swift Glacier

[querulous]

That crack is a very odd feature. It clearly implies snow movement. Aborted avvy fracture line? Snow creep on some bed surface? From the pic it looks transverse to the slope, not vertical. I doubt it has anything to do with an underlying stagnant glacier remnant. Winter and spring glaciers, with deep snow blankets, look just like tranquil snow fields. Until, of course, you notice that little innocuous-looking hole and freak out...

[Charley]

That crack is a very odd feature. It clearly implies snow movement. Aborted avvy fracture line? Snow creep on some bed surface? From the pic it looks transverse to the slope, not vertical. I doubt it has anything to do with an underlying stagnant glacier remnant.

I'm no expert. But I believe that's an example of a glide crack.

Arguments for:
It's been warm, so it's normal that the snow would slowly melt and the snowpack would deform downhill.
The cracks are in fact more or less transverse to the slope.
These often occur on convexities, as your photo seems to show (though maybe it's a camera artifact?).
The cracks can widen slowly (not necessarily suddenly and catastrophically); so it's normal for people to see them and photograph them.

Arguments against:
Glide crack are usually characterized as full depth features: from the snow surface to the ground surface. Isothermal snowpacks provide lots of water to lubricate the snow-ground interface, but if it's on the remnants of a glacier, I'm not sure it would qualify, technically.

[mountainkat]

For the past few years, at least, cracks like that have been forming up high on the east side of Monitor Ridge, as you transition off of the Wormflows route and up onto Monitor Ridge. The remnants of the Swift Glacier are further east of where those cracks form. So, I've assumed they are glide cracks.

[sgyoung]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think glide cracks are a good explanation for the ice/snow features. They are indeed running across the ridge line and the snow was convex there, so it seems like the best bet.

And thanks for correction on my glacier remnants. The swift would indeed the relevant former glacier. When I googled to see where the shoestring was located one of the first hits was an old TR from Chip.

[Chip Down]

When I googled to see where the shoestring was located one of the first hits was an old TR from Chip.

Wow, two of the top 5 images results are from my TRs.
And ironically, I misidentified Swift Glacier on one of them
But I did add a question mark, indicating I was guessing.