I ran the Volcanic 50K race on 8/3/24, which covers the entire Loowit Trail. The race begins at Marble Mountain sno-park, follows the winter climbing route to Chocolate Falls and the Loowit Trail junction, then proceeds clockwise around the mountain. 
Be ready for boulder scrambling, steep trail, overgrown stretches, and eroded and washed out treacherous trail, especially going in and out of canyons. Faint goat-track with that nasty ball bearing type of gravel that wants to roll under foot and makes you slip! Ugh! Poles would be helpful.

ROPES: Near Sheep Canyon there are a couple of precipitous canyons that you descend into and climb out of using fixed ropes. These were recently replaced and are in good condition. I found wearing work gloves helpful.

Water: nonexistent for long stretches of trail. Without the dedicated volunteers who hauled in water I could not have run/hiked this trail! Pumice Butte is dry (near Ape Canyon.) Crossing the Toutle River and the glacial streams - nothing marked, find the place to cross that you think you can handle.

Insects: biting flies were out. They bit me. Yellowjackets and bees buzzed me but I didn’t get stung.

Berries and wildflowers: some but not a lot. Plains of Abraham has no flowers now.

MOST IMPORTANT: Right at the top of Monitor Ridge, exactly where everybody is first arriving on the rim, a section of the cornice broke and fell into the crater last Saturday.  A big piece of rim then collapsed and fell into the crater.

This collapse made the remaining rim in that section extremely unstable, and it will remain so for some time.  Unfortunately, the gap in the cornice makes this very dangerous section look like a good place (the only place!) to get a glimpse into the crater. 

With the ice gone, a 15 foot long by several feet wide section of rim followed the ice into the crater. The rim that remains is 100% vertical, extremely fragile, and continuously undercut by ongoing rock fall. The dangerous section is right at the top of Monitor Ridge where 100% of climbers are arriving on the rim.

With that piece of cornice gone, it is the only place where a view to the crater floor seems possible. This dangerous section will not be resolved until 1) heavy rain erodes it back into a stable form, or2) the snow in the low spot immediately west of Monitor Ridge melts so that folks are no longer visiting this sketchy section of rim.

Climbing Stewards collected all of the superfluous wands and placed them as a semicircle of them around the danger zone. 

Stepping out onto this overhung, fragile, and crumbling section would be extremely dangerous. 

Please do not step out onto this section due to the high level of danger and risk factor! Even if it is your only view into the crater! A fatality occurred in March when someone stepped out onto the cornice when they believed it was safe to do so. Please avoid making the same mistake.

Arrived Monday evening to camp at the trailhead around 9:30p and were surprised we were the only people there. Seems like most folks are starting at climbers bivouac (Website says it’s open, sign says it’s closed).
Started the hike around 4:20a to absolutely clear skies and had a beautiful sunrise above tree line. You can travel along the rocky ridgeline for quite a ways but we opted to get on the snow early. Would recommend crampons if you’re getting out early, as that steep segment before it connects to monitor ridge required front pointing to climb. Later in the day as the snow softens you might be able to create more of a boot pack to get up. Ended up summiting just before 9am as the first two up there followed by quite the crowd coming up monitor ridge. The cornice is quite high this year preventing a good straight on view into the crater and over to Rainier. The decent was quite speedy with the ability to glissade over 3,000’. Only saw two other people coming up the worm flows route during our decent. So if you’re looking for some solitude, would recommend this route. 10/10 day overall.

Made this trip on the Monday of 17th June. So still the summer route is closed - this was the winter route. Road till the parking  was super clear, no problem. Very less people who had decide to ascend the peak on this day - just about 10. 

The first 2 miles is like any standard forest trail, in the trees. The next 1 mile was purely on the rocks and a little up. Here is where you cross the 4800 feet mark above which you need to have the permit. 

Suddently mist swolled the whole mountain and i decided to sit and wait. After 20 mins it cleared and i decided to go forward.

Then comes the fun part - just climp up the snow clad mountain. The snow depth i guess should be little more than a feet. There were exposed rocks on many sides. As those places were sand with stones, sometimes it was easier to walk on the level snow. 

The weather was quite bad as I went up - i had to stop 0.3 miles before the summit as it become super worse, no visibility, winds of 20-25 mph and snowing all the time. Glissading was fun on the way back - did that for 50% of the snow so could come back super fast and comfortable.

TL;DR The Climbers Bivouac trailhead is now open, as of June 16, 2024, and the summer climbing route can be accessed from that higher location on the mountain, rather than from Marble Mountain sno-park. Plenty of snow and challenging conditions persist on the volcano. Come prepared!!! Permits are required: https://www.recreation.gov/permits/4675309 
Northwest Forest Pass or equivalent required to park at Climbers Bivouac.

Also: the road to Climbers Bivouac is rough and unpaved, drive with care. Forest Road 83 has some major potholes and bumps, watch for the signage-- the damage is circled with paint.  

I am a volunteer mountain steward with the Mt. St. Helens Institute/USFS so I visit Mt. St. Helens/Lawetlat'la regularly. On Sat., June 15, 2024, I helped train new volunteers - the weather was truly awful and if we weren't eager to get volunteers trained before an internal deadline, I don't think we would have been on the Worm Flows climbing route. Pretty much no one else was- I think we saw 3 climbers in the distance who were turning around. The day began with heavy rain, then sleet, then snow and strong winds. We climbed to the seismograph which is around 6,000 feet elevation, did some skills practice/learning, then descended. Microspikes and an ice ax were extremely useful. Crampons probably would not have been quite as handy in the wet mushy snow and on the rock ridges that we ascended/descended. We plunge-stepped down on snow between the fluted ridges since glissading was not working on the sticky snow, then got back on rock ridges to head to Chocolate Falls and the hike out. I was in waterproof clothing from head to toe and ended up putting on ski goggles once the snow and wind picked up! Welcome to June on a Cascade volcano!!!