I'm mostly posting for photos, there is plenty of beta already. And any skiiers who might check here.

We hit snow maybe 30min up the trail and only had to transition twice to get over awkward rock/dirt steps. Besides that it was mellow cruiser skinning, nothing technical. We barely even did kick turns besides one narrow ish section where we blew some time doing like 20 50-ft-switchbacks. We eventually stayed way right of the crowds so we could do long open traverses, so it felt a little more isolated (I have a pic that has ~53 climbers in it). Permits right now at 500/day dropping to 100/day on 5/15, so the traffic will lessen.

Snow was awesome. Got a little slushy/grabby around 1pm but almost all of the gullies end up in the same place so there's a ton of terrain to explore and you can make it as steep or mellow as you want. If Hood and Muir had a baby, that's how St. Helens is, with a dope crater at the top.

The climbers seemed fine with just boots/spikes, I didn't see anyone on snowshoes. Given the traffic, I imagine the bootpath was a bomber staircase to the top that got soft and slushy as the day went on. Glissade chutes were long and deep (skiiers beware) and I can only assume were totally awesome. The true summit is to the left of where you top out, but the best crater views are down to the right at a small saddle where you can stay on rock and get to the edge instead of getting too close to the edge of a cornice. And Adams looks awesome!

Have fun! Sweet little piece of history up there.

Climbed on Friday 5/11. Left Marble Mountain Sno Park at about 8:00am and made it back to the car around 4:00pm or so. It was foggy on the mountain but cleared out as we started to glissade down.

The climb is pretty challenging. Training hikes are a must and decent physical shape is also a must if you plan on actually making it to the summit. 5700 feet of elevation is about the same as 570 stories on a stair climber at the gym.

The glissading was amazing. We were able to glissade from the summit all the way down to the tree line. Be sure to keep an eye where you are going as several folks glissade town the wrong shoots. There's also some dangerous shoots. There's one a little below the weather station that goes around a blind corner onto a pile of rocks. Stay away from that one. Take your spikes/crampons OFF before glissading in case they catch on something you don't want to break a leg on the mountain. Also don't tie your ice axe to your hand for the same reason. Lots of people being dangerous on the mountain. 

Do you homework, don't be stupid and you'll have a great time.

Equipment:

-Snowshoes: Leave them at home. They are not needed and are just extra weight.

-Micospikes: Highly recommended above the treeline but not required.

-Ice axe: Required for glissading. Unsafe without.

-Poles: Yes, bring them

-Gloves: Required for glissading. Might want to bring a second pair if your first pair get wet/cold.

Other things to bring: Food, water, sunglasses, sunscreen, chapstick and a beer to chug at the summit.

Fun day on Helens. Stayed overnight at the sno park and left at 6:40 for summit. Heavy winds on the snow fields were challenging at times to push up the steeper pitches but arrived at the summit at 13:40 which was mostly swallowed by clouds. Glissading down was super fun, especially on the steeper sections. Total time from parking lot to parking lot was 9 hours.

Hike Mt St Helens for the first time and it was a doozy!  The weather forecast wasn't great - rain at the bottom and snow at the top - but we decided to go for it anyway given we only had permits for that day.  Got to the trailhead around 9:45.  Lots of trudging through soft snow for the first ~3 miles.  Then about another mile bouldering up a rock field, which was a welcome reprieve from the snow.  the rest of the way is a long slog up the snowfield with not a great footpath to follow.  Snow came in and reduced visibility.  We were on a tight timeline having to get back to Seattle and ended up turning around 400 ft shy of the summit at about 2:45pm.  Grrrr.  But it was the right thing to do - total whiteout, unsure of conditions and how much further we had to go, and it was brutal.  I told my husband it was harder than the Rainier summit....but he just said i forget how hard that was.  In either case, Mt St Helens is savage.  :)  Glissading down was hysterical and so much fun.  Had i known how easy it was to get down, maybe i could have pushed on and made it to the true summit.  Got back to the car at 5pm.  Guess i'll have to come back and get it another day....