Hikers walk past this chunk of the volcano that existed before May 18, 1980. The Crater Glacier surrounding the lava dome is growing at a time when most glaciers around the globe are in rapid retreat.
Ray Yurkewycz perched on the rim of the Northwest's most restless volcano and marveled at the primordial forces at work.
Rocks and boulders sloughed off the crater walls, kicking up plumes of dust as they clattered down the near-vertical slopes. Steam rose from the twin magma domes formed after Mount St. Helens' cataclysmic eruption in 1980 and the quieter outburst that started in 2004.
But Yurkewycz, operations director for the nonprofit Mount St. Helens Institute, was focused less on the volcano's fiery past than its icy present. Few people realize, he said, that the hollowed-out crater where lava was flowing just a few years ago now holds the world's youngest glacier.
And if that's not surprising enough, the prosaically named Crater Glacier is also growing at a time when most glaciers around the globe are in rapid retreat.
Comment: Actually, there are a number of other glaciers that have been advancing within the past year: