Quick report
The south flanks of Mt. St. Helens above 6000' are still deeply snow-covered so the usual steep ridges and deep channels are hidden under a smooth layer of snow. Minor snow falls with west winds are transporting the snow until it deposits on the steep east aspect of Monitor Ridge. In the last few weeks, warm sunny days and cool nights have left a thin lacey layer of ice on the snow above 6500'. During the day, the sun shines through the ice, melts the snow out underneath, and leaves the fragile lacy ice with air underneath. The ice is just a couple of millimeters thick and it has a good 1/2- 1 inches of air under it. When you walk through, thin fragile flakes of ice scatter. I wonder what happens when an 18" wind slab lands on this substrate? It is worth noting that the incoming storm Sunday- Tuesday this week seems poised to deposit more big wind slabs in this zone. Today, we were cautious to avoid the east aspects of Monitor Ridge abobe 6000'.
Avalanche
Today brought another round of slab avalanches on the steep east aspect of Monitor Ridge between 6500 and 8000'. I saw two that appeared to have run very recently. One at 6500-6700 feet had a crown several hundred feet long, more than a foot high, and left blocks of the slab scattered around. Farther down, the debris merged with those from other avalanches that have run in the last 2 weeks. There was a second large slab that ran on the remnants of the Swift Glacier starting at about 8000' on a SW aspect. The crown was at least 200 feet long and a foot or more high. It was just halfway up the slope. This was a solid D2.