Best way to start 2015! 6:20am start at Swift Ski Trail 244. Made it to the Worm Flows trailhead about an hour later as the sun was rising. Hiked bare booted all the way to the toe of Swift Glacier and then slapped on the snowshoes to make the final accent. Some slow stretches of ice, but nothing the snowshoe crampons couldn't handle. The view from the crater rim was worth the effort! Enjoyed snacks in the lee of the crater rim with zero wind and direct afternoon sunlight. Glacading down was easy and free of obstructions, however, a pair of skies would have made it more fun. Made it back to the car without needing a headlamp, courtesy of the nearly full moon.

First time hiking this route. We had a late start and did not make it to the crater in the interest in allowing plenty of time and avoiding the incoming rain system. The first part of the hike was a gentle climb up a usually wide forest path via the Swift Ski Trail. Upon exiting the forest, we walked along the Swift Creek area (no water in it) and crossed over where I presume Chocolate Falls would be if there was water. Lots of markers in the area, so going through rock was no problem. After crossing over, we began climbing a ridge that increased in steepness. Recommend gloves for grabbing onto the sharp volcanic rocks. There's a sign at 4800 ft noting that a climbing permit is required - oddly ran into quite a few people at Lone Fir Resort who were unaware that most of these have sold out for 2014 via the website. Permut.com is your friend. There is a rest spot among the rocks around 5600 feet where many people stopped to wait as other in their group went on, or to eat, etc. Pretty windy, so we got cold fast and started putting on our mid-layers here. Just after this, the snow started. Lots of footprints to follow, and we got to the snow when it was fairly soft. Lots of work to climb it. We used just boots, but had along crampons just in case. Did not use spikes. At around 6000 - 6300 ft we were in our shells and rain pants. Wind picked up quite a bit and it started to rain/sleet. We went up to nearly 7000 feet before decided to call it a day. Lots of fun glissade options on the way down, so you can avoid the rocky descent down the same path. Note that some glissades were rocky, so care needs to be taken, especially at lower elevations. More photos and descriptions: https://www.flickr.com/photos/robynw/sets/72157644863656575/

Great trip up to the crater rim, about a week earlier than last year, but with lighter snowpack. In fact, Swift Creek did not exist this year whereas last June 1 we actually had some water to cross. Six of us got to the Marble Mount Snopark TH by noon, hit the trail by 12:30, and arrived at that great bowl at 6,500 ft to the left of the main route by 5 pm or so. Melted 18 liters of water. Clear weather, but rough winds overnight. 90 minutes up in the morning, views inside the crater, serious winds at the summit, and then headed down. (My 13 year-old curled in a fetal ball at the top, did not like the winds or cold, but the climbing part was fine. Go figure.) Glissading, plunge-stepping, and then regular hiking down. Back to the cars roughly 2 pm and home to Seattle 3.5 hours later (after stopping for food and coffee). A fantastic way to spend 26 hours on the mountain.

My Cousin and I left seattle at 9pm on the 22nd and pulled to the lone fir resort in cougar at midnight. we emailed them our climbing permit receipts so they would leave them out but they only left my cousins. so we hit the sack one of the lovely rooms and woke up at 5am so we would be ready to get our last permit at 6am right when the office opened. met some other people waiting for the office to open and also saw a family who had spent the night and were getting an early start on hiking. also saw at least one deer in the parking lot. got the permit at 6am and headed up to the marble mountain sno park trail head, saw one elk on the way there. road was clear to the trailhead, there was probably about 10 or 15 cars in the parking lot. we were hiking by 6:30am. weather was partly cloudy with sun breaks. we hiked about 2 hrs on dirt w/ pine needles at first (nice and soft!) then onto rock. we didn't see anyone else until we got about 3/4 the way toward the snow. after about 2 hrs we were onto the snow and we put on gaitors, I was using trekking poles the whole way and my cousin wasn't using any. the hiking on the snow was great, there was a boot pack to follow which made it easy, I felt very stable with my poles, my cousin who is lighter on his feet than me was fine with no poles and no ice axe. we got to the faux summit in 4 hrs, we passed everyone we saw between the start of the snow and the top of the mountain. approximately half way up the snow portion of the ascent the clouds rolled in and it starting raining and the wind picked up. the wind was whipping about 20mph at the top. we hiked counter clockwise around the rim toward the true summit, have to down hike slightly then ascend again. we made the true summit and turned around. we started heading back down at about 4.5 hrs into the hike. took us 3 hrs to get back down to the car, down hiking in the rain. 7 hrs round trip with no real significant breaks, only short stops for water and to put on layers or take off layers. Greatwork out, but no views at the top this time! dang, we will be back again for the views as long as we can get permits.

Hike, Climb and ski. 2 hours hike from Marble snow-park to the snow. 1 hour climb on the snow and 2 hours skinning to the Summit. Few cars on parking and few 7-8 climbers during my time. I think total was register for the climb 12 people. ski was not fun this time," short ",snow was sticky... last year was snow almost to the parking lot at the same time. But this was great and relaxing hike/climb/ski.