A perfect, clear day for climbing Mount St. Helens! Camped overnight at the trailhead, and saw several people pitching tents. I was too lazy to set up/tear down my tent, so I slept in my car. Started up the mountain around 4am, but I wish I got a slightly earlier start because the trail heats up quickly.

There were a few intermittent snow patches in the forest, but most of those patches were melted/slush by the time I came down. Once you reach the tree line, the snow fields become more consistent to where you can put on microspikes/crampons. I used microspikes and did fine, but part of me wishes I had crampons for extra stability in some of the steep and slushy patches of snow.

Made it to the rim by 9:30am after what felt like an eternity. However, the views were clear and amazing. Did not feel comfortable making it to the true summit, so I hiked east along the rim before glissading down. Would highly recommend bringing an ice axe for glissading, although I saw a lot of people doing ok with just poles.

Made it back to the parking lot by 12:30pm and made some lunch before leaving.

Did St Helens for the first time today with some friends, many of whom had done it before. We left the sno-park at about 540a and summited at about 11. After spending some time up there we headed down and got back to the car just before 2p. All of us just had standard hiking boots and poles for the way up, except me, I also used micro spikes. The way down we glisaded pretty much back to the tree line. A MSHI guy by the weather station warned that some of the awesome looking glisading chutes from there were rocky and recommended the far left chute, which we took and was clear of rocks. The hike back from the tree line to the car felt like it took for ever, but the snow was starting to get soft and there was a good amount of sliding on it. We did see some people carrying snow shoes, but did not notice anyone wearing them. For skiers, seemed like you need to hike in about 1mi before it was all snow, but there were still several points that skiers, if they geared up, had to take gear off to cross rock beds until we were above the permit required above 4800’ sign. Overall, lots of fun and tons of people on the mountain for the Mother’s Day climb, with fantastic weather and visibility!

This is a trip report targeted towards back-country skiers.

Drove to the TH parking lot on Saturday night for the Mother's Day climb on Sunday. I arrived sometime after 9p and most of the parking lot of was full. Slept in my car overnight. There were a lot of folks heading out to the trail around 2:30a-4:30a to beat the heat. My advice: the earlier the better if you want to ski.

Snow starts around 1 mile in. Most people put on their skis (with skins) here. Once you get out of the forest, you'll have to take off your skis when passing over the creek. Once you get on top of the ridge next to the creek (a short walk up), you can put them back on and resuming skinning. 

Technically, it's possible to skin all the way up to the summit, but it's going to be difficult. The snow was slushy making it hard for skins to grab traction on steeper inclines. I have G3 Alpinists and at one point I started sliding backwards into another lady (luckily she was super friendly and happy to help me up). I decided hiking the rest of the way up with my skis on my bag would be easier (it was). I saw a lot of other folks doing the same. However, my partner did manage to skin all the way up to the base of the false summit with just skins. Most of the other skiers who made it up that far were using ski crampons. 

Despite the slush and not being able to skin up as far as I would've liked, I enjoyed the ride down and I think it was worth bringing skis. :) Especially through the treeline back to the parking lot - makes it go by a lot faster and the cruising speed gives you a much needed breeze. Just be careful of partially exposed rocks in the snow that can scratch up your ride. They should obvious and easy to avoid though. 

I did observe avalanche danger (loose wet). Lots of rollers. Saw a few mini "avalanches" being triggered by skiers just traversing through steeper slopes.

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Misc:

• Weather was sunny and hot. There were no clouds and only an occasional breeze. My car was reporting the temperature to be 90F when I returned to the parking lot. 
• I did not bring an ice axe and I did not feel like I ever needed one. NOTE: I would've brought it if I wasn't skiing.
• Walking in the snow in my ski boots was easy - there are lot of kick steps you can follow so you're basically climbing stairs.
• I brought all of my avy gear (probe, beacon, shovel, a partner) and I've previously completed AIARE 1. If you have ski crampons - bring them.

Did St Helens for the first time today with some friends, many of whom had done it before. We left the sno-park at about 540a and summited at about 11. After spending some time up there we headed down and got back to the car just before 2p. All of us just had standard hiking boots and poles for the way up, except me, I also used micro spikes. The way down we glisaded pretty much back to the tree line. A MSHI guy by the weather station warned that some of the awesome looking glisading chutes from there were rocky and recommended the far left chute, which we took and was clear of rocks. The hike back from the tree line to the car felt like it took for ever, but the snow was starting to get soft and there was a good amount of sliding on it. We did see some people carrying snow shoes, but did not notice anyone wearing them. For skiers, seemed like you need to hike in about 1mi before it was all snow, but there were still several points that skiers, if they geared up, had to take gear off to cross rock beds until we were above the permit required above 4800’ sign. Overall, lots of fun and tons of people on the mountain for the Mother’s Day climb, with fantastic weather and visibility!

I am doing a quick here but will update with a better one.  Hiked it on Saturday and MSH Institute had food and beer at the trailhead for the Mothers Day Weekend.  We started at 3:15am.  Summited around 7:50am.  We only used spikes, even to the true Summit.  Despite the weather showing 10mph winds we had somengusts.  Since we left early the snow was perfect and firm.  We had about 50 people and we basically nall used spikes.

Awesome views at the summit with the clear skies.  We waited until about 10:30 to descend and glissaded quite a bit.  A mountaineering axe comes in handy. The snow was really sloppy and slushy coning down with the sun which makes it really hard to climb.  Finished the hike at 1pm with 2.5 hours spent on the summit.