I caught a brief weather window and climbed St Helens to celebrate the May 18 eruption anniversary.
I slept at the trailhead and started at 5AM. There is snow the entire route, starting with compact snow from the parking lot. The snow was walkable right up to where the route starts to get steeper. I put on crampons and had great, styrofoam-like snow through most of the middle section of the mountain.
It was quite a bit colder on the top quarter of the climb and the snow became icier near the summit. I was very happy to have my crampons. Microspikes would have been fine. I used trekking poles but many other climbers used their ice axes. The summit was clear, windy, and very cold.
On my descent, the sunny day turned the snow on the lower third of the mountain to mush. When I started to posthole consistently I put on snowshoes. I had almost left them in the car, but I was damn glad to have them.
Summary-- The gear that helped make this trip a success: crampons, snowshoes and gloves.
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