Started the ascent at 3:40am. Snow cover was constant at 1-1.5 miles in. Used microspikes for the duration of the climb. The snow was nice and firm. Many boot paths to follow with ease. The weather was so amazing, sun all day with a slight breeze and occasional gust. Once on the crater rim the wind picked up a bit, but nothing over 10-15 mph. Summit trail was the spiciest of the climb with a couple sections that made me want to put on my crampons, but in the end micros and ice axe in hand did the job.

I got to the summit at 7:40, had a snack and soaked in some views. Pretty sure I was the first ascent of the day and had the summit to myself. Even though the snow was firm and icy, I couldn’t resist glissading on the way down. Some fun chutes but I did pay the price of completely destroying my rain pants, lol. Saw lots of folks climbing up on my descent, tons of skiers and snowboarders as well as climbers.

Beautiful day, perfect weather and easy climbing conditions. Back in the car at 11am.

Beautiful day out. Summit lunch was superb. A couple thousand feet of perfect glacial butt sliding that makes life feel worthy of its inherent absurdity. We felt so lucky. 

A night quiet Sunday night at the sno-park allowed for some decent sleep. We got up and started on trail at about 5:45. I wish we were starting hours earlier but my buddy was getting his first summit and I wanted soft snow for his first glissading. The trail is snow free for about the first 1.5 miles which is very welcome for the end of April. The bad part of warmth is when we did hit snow it was a little soft and slippery all the way up to around monitor ridge. The snow consolidated and was of much better consistency after this point up to the summit. At monitor ridge we went around it to the right. The hill going up was a little steeper and looked like a cornice that I didn’t like. Once you summit please please respect the flagged off area. It is maybe 25 feet from the edge. You will not see the crater from here but you’ll live to see it again. It’s flagged off for a reason. A climber lost his life last year getting too close. We hiked up there two days after and it was pretty eerie seeing the area where the cornice broke and took him down to the crater area. Be careful. Be safe. Stay alive. Ok off my soapbox but over the years I’ve seen many people ignore the lines. It’s not worth it. 

This is route is mainly snow all the way. Warning: if you’re planning on a bivouac in the parking lot on a Friday or Saturday night don’t expect any sleep. The symphony of car doors slamming, entry door beeps, locking beeps and cars arriving every 1/2 hour all night long ( no exaggeration) and inconsiderate people talking, whistling, laughing,  went on all night long ( sprinter van a-holes). This is one big party. The parking lot and overflow lot were over capacity with cars strung out along the road. Try for a week day like I normally do.

Ski tour of St Helens. Started around 7:45am. With the late start, the snow was pretty soft for most of the ascent and descent. Consistent snow for skinning up started around 1.5mi from the trailhead. We were pretty slow on the ascent and made it to the rim in 6hours of moving time. The first 1000ft of the ski descent were great; soft snow but fun to ski. The remaining snow got progressively softer and stickier. It took about 30min to ski from summit to where we had first put on skis. Then we had the short 1.5mi walk about. There are some rocky areas that are exposed and the ski descent takes a little bit of planning to avoid rocks and snow cornices, but there is still good snow cover overall.