With our failed summit through the summer route in a windy white-out condition on 2020 Oct 11th, we want to be 100% prepared for this spring summit just in case. In April, field reports started coming in with beautiful sunny days and relatively easy hikes up there. We started checking the mountain forecast and avalanche forecast about 2 weeks before the trip. As we get closer to the climbing day, the April 24th forecast for Saint Helens worsened. What was forecasted to be a couple of inches of snow in the afternoon, then became an inch of snow every 2 hours from Friday night to Sunday morning. On top of that, it was forecasted to be 19' with 20 to 30 mph wind at the summit from 5 AM to 5 PM. Knowing how brutal the wind can be, even on a clear sunny morning above timberline at Saint Helens, we prepared to stay warm and dry.
We were fully geared up. 3 top layers and 2 bottom layers with shells, climbing and ski helmet with new ski goggles, balaclava, glacial gloves, best all-around 4-season boots, gaiters, crampons, ice ax, avalanche safety kits, and plenty of food and water (4L each person).
The trip started fairly slowly through the tree. It was snow from the trailhead with light rain. We were slowing the pace with another pair of hikers want to tag along. We started as 2nd to the last group set out to the summit. The last group of 4 hikes overtook us before reaching the timberline. The pair of hikers tagged along decided to head back. It started snowing while we were moving out of the timberline into snowfields.
We met many hikers, skiers, and snowboarders turning back due to horrible visibility and wind/snow condition after the weather station. After not encountering any climbers who had successfully summited for several hours, we were a bit discouraged, but we trekked on, pushed ahead not to repeat last Oct 11th failed summit. After ascending the snowfield for a couple of hours, we finally encountered a lone hiker coming down. Lo and behold, he told us he was able to reach the summit solo and it was pretty nasty up there. That encouraged us to trek on, also because of a false statement he told us that it was only 1.2 miles to the summit from the weather station (it was a little more than 2 miles from the weather station to the summit).
As we climbed closer to the weather, we encountered skiers and snowboarders coming down, and we started catching up to the 4 hikers who went past us in the tree zone. After a brief rest at the weather station, we trekked about 100 yards behind the 4 hiker group until we overtook them near the top. The visibility ranged from 100 yards at lower elevations to 20 feet around the top. With the crampons on, we had no difficulty ascending even a couple of really steep sections around 750 ft and 250 ft of elevation from the top.
It was poor visibility at the crater rim. We just imagined what the crater looked like in the summer, and called it good. Miraculously, the snow stopped about 40 minutes at the summit while we ate a snack and rested a bit before trekking down.
We descended with the 4-hiker group for navigating in the near whiteout condition. The last thing we wanted to do is descending the summer route (we did and had to traverse left about 200 yards back to the winder route; 2 of us including me lost footing during the traverse and were lucky enough to self-arrest before falling too far). Make sure to check some GPS mapping constantly while descending. We arrived back at the trailhead around 7 PM.
All in all, great climbing in light winter conditions. Having the right equipment made a big difference.
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