Mountaineers speak of ‘dry’ zones and ‘wet’ zones on a glacier. In the wet parts of a glacier, the ice is covered by a layer of lying snow; in dry parts, there is no such covering. Wet zones are often easier to move on, but more perilous, as the dangers of crevasse and berg-schrund are concealed, and it is hard to predict the weight-bearing qualities of the snow.
