Got an early 4am start and snow was firm enough. Thanks to people who went before me kicking nice steps in, making it much easier. I brought crampons but never needed to put them on. 

By the time I came down shortly after noon, the snow turned quite soft, which made for some nice glissading, but I postholed to my thigh a couple of times near the tree line, and had to dig my leg out. And the last ~2 miles in the wooded part was a lot of slip and slide due to soft snow. 

The people going up in the afternoon looked like they were having a hard time getting footing with soft snow. 

The parking lot was 80-90% full by the time I got back to it, surprising for a week day. When I checked the permit availability just the day before, it said 99+ was still available. But I guess right now there's 350 daily permits until 5/14, and then it's only 150/day after that.

Weather held up and able to summit today.  Large cornice on true summit so would give a good distance back (see picture).  Started at 6 am and snow pack firm and snow shoes not needed.  People hiking up in microspikes and crampons.  Nice boot pack to summit.  On way down, snow became very soft and glissading was great.  Hiking partner fell 4 feet into a hole after snow overlying rocks collapsed but luckily was not hurt. 11 hr total time including 2.5 hrs of breaks.  

TLDR: First time up St Helens for the whole family with epic glissading on the way down.

Since Val and Katie were planning to climb Mt St Helens with their scout troop, me and the boys decided to go along but instead of camping in town we decided to hike in part way on Friday night. I totally underestimated the traffic in Seattle so we arrived at the trailhead at 9pm and were hiking at 9:30. Despite that, we still got about 2 miles in and set up our tent right before Chocolate Falls around 11:15pm.

The weather forecast had been getting worse over the previous couple of days but luckily the parking lot was dry. The hike got a little drizzly and it rained on and off through the night, but mostly tapered off by morning. There were a few groups walking by before sunrise and it got busier as we started waking up. We had a hot breakfast, packed up our day packs and headed out around 7:20.

Lots of people on the trail. The snow started out pretty soft but there's a solid boot pack so no need for snowshoes. Microspikes were helpful, but not required. Despite the forecast, the sun came out multiple times so we got great views of the mountain below us.

Val and Katie started from the parking lot around 7am (in full rain) and caught up to us after the weather station.

 The last 2000 feet of elevation are very frustrating as you get to a high point thinking you're almost there and see another steep mountain side in front. There were also very few people heading down and those were all skiers, so I was pretty sure we still had a while to go.

 The weather turned windier and the clouds came in so a bunch of the last approach were in a white out, but things cleared up a little right when we got to the top. We bundled up, ate a quick lunch and headed back down as it was getting cold. 

The way down went significantly faster. The snow was cold and soft at the top so we could run down and then the glissading started. Because of the recent snowfall, the chutes were soft, smooth, and went on for forever. One chute close to the end was like a bobsled course.

 We got back to Chocolate falls with ominous clouds overhead so booked it back to our tent, packed up as fast as we could and headed out. Grabbed some pizza in Cougar and 3 hours later were back at home.

Lots of parking on a Wednesday. The road and parking lot are clear. Snow starts right at the TH. 

It was a very sunny day and the snow was pretty soft very early in the day. 

Beautiful day outside. I had skied up with a painting I started on a previous climb, with the intention of finishing it. It was super windy, so I painted a little bit and then skied down. 

TL;DR we turned around halfway out of abundance of caution. Read full trip report for the details.

We left King County at around 2:30pm on Friday, 4/28. Traffic was predictably horrendous (probably because everyone wanted to get out of town to enjoy the hot weather). We didn't arrive at Marble Mountain Sno-park until about 8pm. The road itself wasn't bad, but snow on the shoulders made it a one-way drive for short sections. The parking lots were relatively full when we arrived. One person intentionally blocked-off multiple spots. When we wove through parked cars to our spot, they asked us to move since they were "holding these spots for friends". Reader, please do not do this. Nobody is entitled to space in this manner. Many of us worked extra hours all week so we could leave work early on Friday to accommodate the travel logistics. Don't be that person.

We began our ascent around 1:45am. Snow was immediately soft and the trail did not have as solid of a boot pack as we would have hoped. We made it out of tree line and past Chocolate Falls without traction devices, but threw on snowshoes soon after. We could only see a handful of parties ahead of us by their headlamps.

We were only at about 4,500 ft. in elevation on the worm flow when we decided to turn around. Our snowshoes were slipping backward on the ascent. Saturday would be the third day in a row of high temperatures in the region, and it was not cold enough overnight for snow to freeze again, making it a bit of a slush-fest. This, combined with the NWAC's continuous warnings and special avalanche bulletin, made us wary to continue. After all, nobody in our party had formal avalanche training, and although we had snowshoes and microspikes, we did not have crampons and ice axes.

We saw a boat-load of people making their way up as we hiked back to the trailhead. Most folks were kind and looking for beta; luckily there were only a few judgmental looks and conversations. It seems like most folks on skis were faring well, but I can't say the same for snowshoers and hikers.

Ultimately it looked to be an awesome day to climb the mountain. Perhaps our concerns were for naught. Since then I've read reports on various sites ranging from rad-times, to folks falling into crevasse cracks. However, we felt uncomfortable, and made the call for what we felt was safest for us in the moment. Glad to see other folks out there having a blast!