Climbed Mt. St. Helens via Worm Flows route on Sunday. Just a bit of snow on the road at the Marble Mount Sno-Park. Snowshoes needed immediately at trailhead. Snow was soft and deep, especially on decent. Used crampons above 5000 ft. Large cornices at the summit, climbers should stay 60 ft away. There were lots of climbers (100+) out on a day with such beautiful weather. 

Stayed Saturday night (3/10) in the Jeep, got up early around 3am to start our hike. Parking lot was just about bare with no snow coverage, and easy to get around. LOTS of cars preparing for the great sunny conditions Sunday had to offer. 

Trail: With the warm weather on Saturday snow was a little slushy at the beginning of the trail head and into the trees. We wore snowshoes for this part until clearing the treeline, and getting out in the open where we had more sturdy snow coverage .  Right at the base of the mountain we stored our snowshoes and strapped into our crampons for the next and the rest of the journey of MSH. The trail in the trees, as well as the trail leading up to the base of the mountain and further was nice and packed down. Obvious directions, and helped with footing with the steeper incline towards the summit. Slightly cloudy morning lead to a fantastic sunrise, and cloud burn-off lead to spectacular views 360 degrees while climbing up. At the top windy but beautiful, and beware of the cornice's around the edge of the crater. There's a slightly packed trail from those who made it to the top. Feel free and safe to travel on that small trail. On the way down, glacading is the way to go. Cut the travel time down, and the legs didn't mind the break either. Make sure you have your snowshoes ready at the base of the mountain, the intense sun and heat from the day makes the snow nice and slushy. We ended our trip on snowshoes all the way back to the parking lot.

Make sure you have lots of water!! We were sweating mid-mountain the sun is super intense. Sunglasses, light long-sleeve, snowshoes,gaiters, crampons, gore-text pants if you want to glacade, lots of snacks, SUNSCREEN, and a beer for the top! I suggest staying the night prior and waking up early to catch the sunrise, that in itself was a highlight. All around great hike and great weather. With the warm weather this following week, conditions will likely be the same. 

Car camped Saturday night at Marble Mountain and started at around 7:00 Sunday morning. My sister and I brought both spikes and snowshoes. We met a guy the night before who just got down who said in the afternoon sun people were postholing up to their hips and even having trouble floating on top with snowshoes. In the morning we used our spikes up to the tree line with no problems but had to switch to snowshoes after that. The midsection on the rocky ridge was tough and people without snowshoes were postholing deep in 10:30-11am sun. The last couple inclines were steep and we were down to base layers around noon. We summited at 1:00. The way down was brutal- we didn’t bring skis and the heat had melted that middle section snowpack to the point where every step we post holed at least to our knees. My sister almost lost her shoe and was up to her waist many times! We fought through it and switched to snowshoes when it was less steep. Our first accent! It was a beautiful weekend for views and climbing conditions. I would recommend an earlier start to avoid slushy snow.

A quick trip report on this route since it has been awhile since someone has posted.

Road to the Marble Mountain parking lot has sections covered in ice and snow over the last five miles.  My 4runner made it with no issues but I would have been comfortable driving it in a passenger sedan as none of the sections were covered in deep snow.

Unlike my trip in January, there is a good amount of snow right at the beginning of the route and we put our snowshoes on right away.  A well beaten boot path that makes travel very easy exists and quite honestly, in the early morning temps, we could have probably stowed our snowshoes away without much postholing.

The boot path leads right to the ridge and continued up it.  We kept our snowshoes on at this point taking advantage of our heel risers for the steady incline.  At about 6,000' the temps really soared and we found without showshoes, we would posthole so we kept them on for the entire climb.  

Cornices were evident on the crater rim and honestly, it was difficult to get a view of the crater without moving a bit too close to the edge for my taste.  That being said, it was a beautiful day with fantastic conditions.

With a storm moving in the next few days, I suspect someone will have to put the work in to forge a new trail for the great weekend weather.