Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Tuesday, Jun. 18, 2024

Arrived Monday evening to camp at the trailhead around 9:30p and were surprised we were the only people there. Seems like most folks are starting at climbers bivouac (Website says it’s open, sign says it’s closed).
Started the hike around 4:20a to absolutely clear skies and had a beautiful sunrise above tree line. You can travel along the rocky ridgeline for quite a ways but we opted to get on the snow early. Would recommend crampons if you’re getting out early, as that steep segment before it connects to monitor ridge required front pointing to climb. Later in the day as the snow softens you might be able to create more of a boot pack to get up. Ended up summiting just before 9am as the first two up there followed by quite the crowd coming up monitor ridge. The cornice is quite high this year preventing a good straight on view into the crater and over to Rainier. The decent was quite speedy with the ability to glissade over 3,000’. Only saw two other people coming up the worm flows route during our decent. So if you’re looking for some solitude, would recommend this route. 10/10 day overall.