Lost & Found:  One Petzl Crampon. If it is yours, reach out and I can get it back to you!

Had a fun but rainy hike up on Monday morning. The road in and the couple miles of the trail is snow free. We started at up at 6am in an attempt to get a slightly better weather window. But alas we still got rained on. Turned around at the weather station as the misery factor was getting high - no visibility, drenching drizzle. Got in a couple glissades and some practice with crampons for some friends newer to mountains. Folks were going up in just microspikes with poles, but I love me some crampons and an ice axe. We got great purchase on that softening springtime snow. Even with misty, cloudy weather, being on Helens was a stunning experience. Will return next year.

We used this outing as a chance to practice skills for a planned Mount Baker summit attempt next month. We hiked in on a beautiful day with heavy packs carrying ropes, harnesses, pickets, helmets, mountaineering boots, crampons, ice axes, and helmets. 

We arrived at the parking about 11:00 AM, unloaded everything and were hiking by 11:30. The trail is mostly dry with occasional patches of snow all the way to Chocolate Falls. The falls were running strong today. We were in hiking boots or mountaineering boots, with gaiters. Some of us with microspikes most without. We set up camp just above the snow line and enjoyed an afternoon with blue skies. We practiced glissading and snow safety skills.

Knowing that weather was coming in, and that the snow was pretty soft, we began our summit attempt at 2:00 AM. Some of us in microspikes, most in mountaineering boots. We followed the rocks nearly to the monitoring station. For the last stretch, mountaineering boots added crampons. We turned off headlamps at the point, so it was probably around 5:15 sunrise. Once we arrived at the monitoring station, we set up our rope lines and began the long ascent. The snow was pretty soft, so footing was fine all the way up. Route-finding was challenging at times in the dark, but there are ample boot tracks to follow up, up, up. The morning mist turned to sleet somewhere along the way and the wind picked up. We pushed on. We had a large group and found that one group traveled faster than another, so the fast group became pretty cold waiting on the slower group. We were all fine when we were moving, but stopping on the mountain gave us a chance to realize just how soaked our gear was from the rain and time for water to work its way further in. 

After we joined up with the Monitor Ridge Climbing Route, we took stock of our situation. The wind was getting stronger, there was no sign of the sun breaking out of the cloudy skies. Sustained winds, periodic gusts, and moisture blowing along with it. Having climbed 4200 feet with about 600 feet left to the crater rim, we noted some hypothermia setting in and made the hard decision to turn back.  

We hiked back down the steep wall near the trail junction and then removed crampons, put away ropes and harnesses, and began the descent. After we lost about 1000 feet of elevation, the wind dropped down and everyone started to warm up. The snow was very soft which made for some fun, but wet, glissade shoots and the visibility improved almost every step of the way so we could see our runouts. We arrived at camp about 1:00 and enjoyed the skies clearing up a bit, pouring water out of our boots and changing into dry clothes. A little coffee and lunch and packing up our gear and we were hiking down by 2:30. We were back at the cars by 4:00 and ready for the long Memorial Day drive home.

Patchy snow in forest below chocolate falls.  Ridgeline to weather station mostly melted out, or one can easily take snow up to the weather station.   Above that travel is primarily on snow.  Good bootpack for all steep sections.  Cornice at the top developing a large crack - stay well away - if you can see Rainier, you are way too far out! 

Road is paved all the way up to the Sno-Park trailhead. Tried to drive up to Climbers Bivouac trailhead but hit deep snow about 2 miles short. Google maps has the road between the two trailheads as closed but it is in fact open. Started hiking up & hit intermittent snow 1/2 mile past the old gravel quarry, continuing pretty much all the way up to the intersection with the Loowit Trail. It should be melted in the next 2-3 weeks but for now is easy to cross & very much packed down until right before the intersection, which is post holey for maybe 1/8 mile. After the Loowit intersection, we followed the rocky/boulder ridge, which was snow free for the next couple of miles &/or couple of thousand feet of scrambly ascent. Just below the weather station, we ran out of rocky ridge & put on our micro spikes. From this point to the crater rim was all on snow with easy to see boot pack. Most others I saw had ice axes. I made it work with my poles. Another group I saw had no poles or axes & did make the crater rim. I guess most brought the axes for the glissade down. The hike down was wet & slushy so start earlier than we did at 8:30am if you are not skiing or glissading down. Advisory: If you want to look down into the caldera, hike this in the Summer after the snow melts. As of now, the whole crater rim has an overhanging soft, mushy snow cornice. Only a small part of the rim has been flagged to stay behind & is easy to miss.

Shared a bunch of photos and notes here!: 📸 https://www.itsangiemarie.com/blog/helens-2025 

Please do not glissade with crampons on! Three men on their descent together came scarily close to my group and others while sliding down with crampons still on. This isn’t only dangerous to others (because of potential impact and sharp metal), but is incredibly dangerous for the glissader as well (ACL tears, broken ankles, lacerations, etc.)

I love how on Mt. Adams there are signs at the start of the South Climb warning people about the dangers of doing this. I wish MSH had the same ones! Here’s some info to review on staying in control while glissading, proper ice axe position, etc