Beautiful day for a hike - clear skies and not too cold or windy.

Last three miles of road to Climber's Bivouac trailhead was closed due to snow (about 1' of snow on gravel road) so we hiked in to the trailhead. Not too bad, just a steady uphill walk.

First part of hike through forest was easy. Snow was pretty hard, so no issues there.

Followed blue diamond markers to the Monitor Ridge climbing route. Rock field was mostly covered with snow, and crampons would definitely have been very useful in climbing the ridge.

Due to a late start, we turned around before reaching the summit, but we were still able to enjoy some amazing views! Glissaded back down the ridge to the treeline.

Beautiful hike - just make sure you bring water, traction device (ie crampons), as well as chains and a shovel in case the car gets stuck in the snow.

Climbed Mt. St. Helens yesterday. Trip began around 0900 after some difficulty finding the climbers bivuac (apparently a common problem).

First portion of the climb is fairly short (30 minutes or so depending on pace) and covers a few miles of gentle ascent through the forest. The route is very clearly defined and the trees are marked with blue diamonds. Once you reach the timber line (once again, marked) you have a good idea of what your getting in to.

Second portion was the rockfields, and I need to suggest two things at this point: 1.) Trekking poles!!! and 2.) A buddy. The pumice is very loose and your feet will slip easily if you are not careful, furthermore, the falls could be debilitating. You do not want to get hurt alone (Common sense climbing). The fields are very steep and you need to test out what you are going to use for leverage before putting your wait on it. Some of the larger rocks look very safe to use but come loose in the pumice and fall for a good hundred feet before stopping, make sure the people below you are aware of this! You will have to do some climbing to traverse the fields, so a pair of gloves might come in handy. Also, we hit clouds at this point, and visibility was about 200 yards (we could always see the next marker, which are 2x4's with colored markers at the top of them. Easy to see)

Finally, once you breech the rockfield (about at the GPS station), you will get into some snow and you can begin trekking through it. The wind started up around the GPS station and I had to go from T-shirt to a sweater at this point. I did the snowfields without crampons, but they definitely would have helped. When my party got to the GPS station it was about 1130, and we decided to take a short (5 minute) break. We also broke through the clouds shortly before the station. When you hike up the snowfield, be careful of straying too far from the beaten path, it can get very icy and hard to walk on. The final hike to the summit is fairly steep, so take your time and use other peoples boot marks to help get a sturdy step. When we reached the summit at 1300, there were a few other teams up there and a beautiful view was ours! You can see Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood easily. we rested for a few minutes and began the trip back down.

Other notes:
Their was a dog at the GPS station with booties on to protect his feet, he was very excited and in better shape than me!
The pumice is loose, be careful going up AND DOWN.
During descent, we hit cloud cover so bad it shrunk visiblity to >75 yards. I would not have wanted to ascend during that time (about 12-1:30)

Ascent time: 3.5 Hours
Descent time: 2.5 Hours

My buddy and I set out from Climbers Bivouac at 2am Sunday morning.
It was raining steadily as we started and continued to do so as we
climbed towards the treeline.

The forested portion of the trail was easy to follow in the dark and
very tame. We were surprised by how level it was given the 1000 ft.
per mile climb of the hike. The latter portion of the hike made up
for it!

Once we reached the treeline, probably a bit after 3am we put the guy
with the strongest headlamp (100 lumens) in front. Attempting this
trail in the dark without a headlamp that strong is probably ill advised.
As it was we were barely able to pick out each reflective marker as we
proceeded up the mountain. The rain, which had picked up since leaving
camp likely played a part in decreased visibility, but the markers did
begin to space out further as you got further up the trail.

We stopped a bit over 3/4 of the way to the top in a small sheltered
area between two rocks. It was relatively dry, and most importantly
shielded us from the wind that had picked up. We ate PB&J and put on
extra dry layers for the final push to the summit.

After leaving the calm of our rock shelter the weather really turned
nasty. The winds picked up to 25-30 mph and sent the rain in at a
constant horizontal angle. We slogged up the remainder of the mountain
to the crater rim. Not having been on the trail before, and attempting
it in the dark, we kept thinking each false summit was the crater only
to be disappointed when we saw the next "summit".

Just as we were about to turn back due to the weather we crested the rim
of the crater. The summit was a short jaunt to the West. We got there at
6:02am and spent a whopping 20 seconds at the top, bumped poles, and then
started down. No summit snacks or photo ops today. We wanted out FAST!

The trail was in very good shape. No snow left on the route, and it was
all very well marked. I would second some of the comments on here I have
seen about gardening gloves. The rocks were very abrasive, and I opened
pretty much every knuckle on them. Also, we were both dog owners and couldn't
imagine our pooches (very athletic) making the hike. I would advise against
bringing rover with you. While it isn't technical, it is a tough route mentally
and physically. Certainly a mountain to be respected.

Best weather we could ask for, sunny and windy. Views are of course great. Had a good time, we hike this every year so this is year 7 to the top. 5.5 hrs RT. We saw people going up in flip flops, was wondering how they did on the way down, ouch. We saw people slidding down step patches of the snow, heading straight for rocks yelling at each other to look out for the rocks.a One guy slammed into the rocks hurting his leg. It is some what concerning when you witness people doing things that can be or is a potential hazzard.