The weather forecast for Friday was out-of-this-world perfect - sunny, temperatures ranging from upper teens to upper 20s, low/moderate avalanche danger, and only 5-10 mph winds. With that being said, we took advantage of this rare weather window and finally knocked out a long anticipated Mt St Helens summit. 

After working 8 hours, we packed our bags and drove 4 hours to the Marble Mtn Sno park. Road is totally paved and clear, in the wee hours of the morning, there was some ice on the road in spots. There was probably 8 cars in the lot around 5am. 

We ended up starting on the trail around 6. There was more fresh snow than I expected, and it was also much softer than we anticipated. Given the cold temps, we (and many others) were expecting rock hard snow, but it was soft and not very packed down. 

The trail was easy to follow because of all the hikers before us breaking trail. I can understand why some people may have wanted snowshoes higher up (a handful brought some, I never saw anyone wearing them however), but we were happy with the choice of boots and crampons. (This will probably be irrelevant come Saturday). The snow was so soft and thick that crampons weren't really useful until the seismic station.

The last 1,500 ft or so were brutal, especially with the sun beating down, and going off of no sleep... This is where we started to use our ice axes. Lots of people stopped at the crater rim. Even though it sucks to drop elevation and have to come back up to get to the true summit, I was surprised at how quickly it went by (probably 20 minutes). Luckily there was a few bootpaths already, otherwise it would've taken longer. Amazing views all around, truly a bluebird day with super easygoing wind breezes. 

Coming down, we started down the adjacent slope to the actual worm flows trail (monitor ridge), which I regret because it got super icy and slick and I had taken my crampons off to glissade. I personally recommend going down the official way if you are hiking (lots of ski trails going kind of all over the place though). Since the fresh snow was so powdery and thick, there was no real ideal places to glissade because it was all too fluffy. We managed to glissade some parts, but I was definitely a little disappointed with the lack of opportunity. 

Would have preferred to leave around 4-4:30am for possibly firmer snow conditions, sunrise well above treeline, and because the sun warmed us up a little too much during the most strenuous part. Many skiers today, especially around noon. Conditions looked perfect. Overall a fantastic, yet terribly exhausting day.

Weather was exceptional despite it being very cold, avy danger was low, wind's where 5mph. Only a few other cars at Marble Mountain Snow Park majority of the being snowmobilers. Road is fine and does not require chains or 4wd, no potholes. Snow was soft and but did not require snowshoes but boots and crampons a must. There are some steep parts where you just need a ice axe and good crampons to feel safe right around the seismic station, esp in places of steep exposure but in reality low consequence as  the steeper sections flatten out.  Trail was easy to follow. Didn't glissade down because didn't want to take crampons off. Once the sun dropped, it was freezing cold and I thought my balls got frostbite from urinating. I only saw about five other people of the trail, which included two skiers. You will posthole on the way down but it is not worth bringing your snowshoes, bring gaiters you will be fine. 

Road and Parking Conditions. Road was snow free. There were some minor potholes and uneven surface. Marble Mountain Sno-Park was surprisingly empty. We got nice parking spots just in front of the trailhead.

Trail Conditions. There were 4 of us. We started around 3:40 AM. The snow was firm in the morning. We hiked with just our boots and poles for the first 2 miles. I wore my normal hiking boots while the other 3 wore mountaineering boots. When we reached the timberline, we decided to put our crampons on. 

The trail was well marked. On swift ski trail, there were blue diamond signs on the trees and there were poles near Chocolate Falls. We followed a decent bootpath although our leads checked their gps from time to time.

Although the weather was mild and the sky was clear, strong wind gusts in the am made the climb more difficult. It felt like 25-30 mph. I did not use my ice axe on the way up and felt comfortable with crampons and poles. 

We reached the false summit just before noon. We did not go to the true summit although one of us went a little further to check the route. It looked pretty sketchy and it's a no for me 😁.

The wind 'magically' stopped during our descent. By this time, the temp has warmed up, the snow has softened up, and we saw more and more skiers and snowboarders going up 😉.

At a lower elevation, one of us decided to glissade. He brought a thick trash bag with him and exchanged his crampons with spikes. 

Side notes: Overall it's an almost perfect day to climb. It's my first for me, so it was pretty tough especially without a wink of sleep from the night before and I climbed almost immediately after a long drive from Everett.

Ice axe, crampons, trekking poles, and extra water were needed that day. I brought 3L of water and it's not enough. I did bring my jetboil but did not use it at all.

We all left our snowshoes in the car. Did not regret it even though we postholed on our way down. 

More pictures can be viewed via our leads' facebook posts below.

Beautiful "bluebird day" at Mt. St. Helens. To piggyback on other recent reports:

• Arrived at Marble Mountain Snow Park around 4:20am on Saturday, February 12. The upper lots were "full" so we parked in the lower lot. I put "full" in quotes because the normal parking spots were occupied--plenty of additional cars had found creative ways to fit into the lots by the end of the day (and didn't appear to impede traffic much). Lower lot was sparsely populated in the morning and still had plenty of spots upon our return in the afternoon. Road was bare and dry all the way to the lots. 
• Plenty of groups starting around the same time we did with the great forecast for the day. We waffled as to whether to start in snowshoes and ultimately decided to use snowshoes and poles to Chocolate Falls. We left the shoes and poles up against a tree near Chocolate Falls and they were right there waiting upon our return. I would say we didn't really need them in the morning. Snowshoe use was probably 50/50 by other groups heading up to Chocolate Falls. On the way down from Chocolate Falls in the afternoon I was glad to have the snowshoes and poles--the snow had softened and I suspect we would have done some postholing.
• We put on our crampons at Chocolate Falls. In retrospect, we probably should have used our poles for at least another mile or so past Chocolate Falls. Not a big deal but would have been worth having them.
• Many people on skis on the way up. Most had converted to crampons by the time they reached the weather station. 
• We made it to Chocolate Falls in about 1.25 hours. It took us about 5 hours to reach the summit from Chocolate Falls. We took our time with plenty of breaks given how spectacular the views were. Looking around it seemed we were moving about the same pace as most other climbers. 
• It was windy all day, otherwise I suspect we would have been pretty toasty. I would say we had a 20kt wind that freshened and quieted but was much more on than off. It was a layers-on-layers-off weather day with the summit being the only stop where a neck gaiter and stocking cap felt necessary. I'd say the windchill at the summit was around 25 degrees. 
• The snow was a little soft for the first 1.5 miles after Chocolate Falls but was firm and nice for climbing the final 1.5 or so miles to the summit. 
• It felt like all climbers were in one large group together in a line on the way up the mountain. On the way down we barely ran into anyone. Skiers and riders appeared to descend well east of the climbing route. It was a little too icy and bumpy to glissade directly from the summit, but after walking down about .25 miles we were able to glissade for large swaths of the descent. 
• Great views all day. Hood and Jefferson very clear to the south and could easily see as far as Baker looking north at the summit. The lava dome in the crater was emitting steam while we were at the summit. 
• I last summited MSH in September 2010 and would say the winter climb was slightly less physically demanding. But I think it's still about as tough a hike/climb as a reasonably fit person would want to do without having trained specifically for it. 

Started out from the SnoPark around 4:00 a.m. Snow begins immediately. The trail is well-signed and easy to follow, even if it's dark and you have not been there before. Once we emerged from the treeline, the headlamps of hikers who got an earlier start dotted the upper slopes, giving us a good sense of the direction of the route. If you are starting off in the dark be mindful that there are some big drop-offs on the sides of the route that may not be so obvious. Snow conditions varied a lot, with some sections being quite icy and others having deeper snow. Went with crampons and poles the whole way up, though there were sections where I would have felt a little better with my ax in one hand.

We reached the top at 11:00 a.m., lingered until around 11:30 a.m. On the way down the snow had mostly softened, but some icy section still required some care. Fortunately if you do cut loose, it's pretty low consequence--the steeper slopes just flatten out at the bottom without rocks or drop offs.

There were tons of skiers coming down around us, but no issues there--they all passed safely. Loved seeing all the skiers coming down with their dogs running alongside them.

Snow softened enough down below the treeline that we decided to switch to snowshoes. Was not necessary, but made the going a little easier. In retrospect, I would have left the snowshoes in the car and saved the weight. But we had expected it to get a lot softer based on the projected temperature.

Returned the car around 3:45 p.m. for an 11.75 hour round trip.