Beautiful blue sky day for my son’s first volcano. We slept at the trailhead and got an alpinish start at 4am. The snow in the trees was soft, but if we stayed on the packed trail we didn’t posthole. Once past Chocolate Falls, the snow was firmer. We put on crampons after the falls.

The route was easy to follow, but some sections had tracks quite spread out. This meant finding well packed tracks was harder. Above the 4800 foot line, the snow was generally solid with a great set of steps kicked in.

Above about 7600’ the snow was like styrofoam. Strong winds forced us to bundle up and we spent little time on the summit. The cornices were huge and we stayed well back so views into the crater were limited.

Although there are glissade tracks from the summit, they were rock hard and not fun. Below 7600 and with the warming sun, there were some epic sliding opportunities. Unfortunately, that also exposed some instability in the snow. Lots of sign of loose wet avalanches, though nothing major.

At 4800’ we put on snowshoes to avoid the posthell that anyone just booting it in the afternoon would face.

Overall, a great introduction to volcanos for my 14 year old and a reminder that my elderly self can still climb a bit.

This trip was awesome. It was my first time hiking and skiing a volcano! We started from the trailhead at 7 AM and summited around 1 PM (6 hours to ascend). Started descending on skis at 2 PM and returned to trailhead by 3:30 PM (1.5 hours to descend).

We don't own AT ski gear, so we decided to snowshoe and pack up our ski boots and skis. Yes, it is stupidly heavy... but it's SO worth it for the descent, so if you have regular skis and don't mind the extra weight and have some knowledge on avalanche safety (edit: and are confident on off-piste conditions and understand that you might end up having to carry them down if the conditions are unfavorable), I say go for it. The snowshoes were helpful for traction, but not necessary because the trail was so packed (microspikes would have been best and more lightweight, crampons would have been most safe but would require mountaineering boots and more weight). I used my snowshoes until the trail got too steep and the boot pack steps did not fit snowshoes. Ice axe was helpful to feel more secure and know I could stop myself sliding if I were to slip on the steep parts, especially since I didn't have any traction footwear once taking snowshoes off. But I also saw people with just two poles up there, so whatever you're comfortable with.

The descent was wonderful. We skied some crusty part from the very top because we picked the wrong aspect, but once we figured out to ski on the leeward side into a gully (skiers left of trail) it was glorious. We followed the gully until it was too rocky and continued back to the trailhead on the trail. So awesome that you can ski right back to the parking lot. Not sure how long that will last, but I think there's a big storm coming so probably will be good for another week or two! Obviously this changes snow conditions and gear requirements, so plan accordingly.

My partner and I went to ski down Mt. St. Helens. We started up the trail at 7am. The snow was very firm/icy through the woods up to the start of the worm flows themselves/the rocky parts. By around 10:00/10:30 the snow was softening in places and getting slushy. We put ski crampons on and it made going much easier. This portion of the trail presented challenges as the snow cover is low and lots of rocky areas are exposed. Different parties were choosing between skinning and just boot packing through the rocks. 

We made the rim of the crater around 1:30. The last mile of the hike there was fairly high/gusty winds on the ridges and at the crater, probably 20-30knt. But it was above the clouds so there was not a visibility issue there. Also the low snow cover meant a very small cornice at the top and you could actually see into the crater which was cool.

After eating we started our ski down. the snow conditions were "interesting". It seemed the wind had frozen the very top crust of snow so it was not as slushy/spring corn as hoped the first 1000ft or so and the snow was full of boot post holes from mountaineers all over the place. We then traversed over to the middle of the Swift Glacier and the snow was clear of boot tracks and softened up for much better skiing.

The clouds had increased in density when we got back to the rocky section. Visibility was down to maybe 50 feet so we had to take it slow and reassess out route a few times to get down safely. The fog thinned right at the treeline and visibility was good the rest of the way.

Overall: pretty good day. Probably would have had a better time with a slightly earlier start, like 5 maybe. Also it would have been basically impossible without ski crampons.

With a brief good weather window, I decided to take advantage of the “free self issue permit” that goes away after March 31.  Looked like I wasn’t the only one with that idea.  I think there were close to 100 hikers out there today.  The Sno-Park parking was 50%+ full at 7 AM.

The conditions summary: snow starts at the parking lot.  Snow crust was quite solid for my whole ascent (got there at noon).  Pretty solid steps if you aren’t skinning up.  I heard a few skiers saying they were switching back to crampons on the way up.  

There was a little sketchy traverse from the crater rim to the true summit because the crust was so hard that it made it difficult to dig in, but if you have crampons/axe it was fine.

On the descent, a little  softer on the top half and past Monitor ridge was very soft on the verge of post holing on the way down. Some were glissading but I opted to keep my crampons on for awhile.  I was back at my car by 3 PM.  Pretty blue skies so I feel fortunate for this being a March hike.  Make sure you remember your sunscreen (I didn’t and I’m feeling the heat!).

Conditions report for Mt St Helens- 3/22/22:
- We skinned from the trailhead but I'd say there's less than a week's worth of snow left at TH
- Snow was firm in the morning, making for happy snowshoers
- We booted parts of the ridge. Its pretty bare through the beginning of the ridge
- We also booted the upper ridge to avoid going under avalanche conditions on that rightside traverse
- Speaking of avalanche conditions: Wowzers. We talked to two people who heard a large one and turned around in early morning, and we saw a couple small ones on the way up. On the way down, we triggered two wet, loose of little consequence. Mostly lots of roller balls and chonks (scientific term?)
- The skiing down was so good. Some of my favorite skiing yet. Though, it'd warmed up so considerably that our snowshoe friends were very unhappy.

**Notes on avalanche conditions this week: it's been moderate to considerable above treeline, so stay on route where the terrain isn't steep enough. You will be in avy terrain towards the top though. 

Pro Dipsh*t Tip: Do not skimp on water, sleep the night before, and sunscreen, folks.