Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Saturday, Mar. 8, 2025

The road, parking lot and trailhead are snow free. The first half mile or so of the trail has patchy snow, from that point on the snow is continuous, compact snow and ice on trail. Starting around 4000 ft the snow was icey with a non breakable crust and this was the case up to around 6500 ft. Between 6500 and 7500 ft there was a few inches of powder with a layer of solid snow underneath. There was a good bootpack up to about 7900 ft at that point there either wasn't a solid bootpack or if there was I lost it, visability was extremely poor near the top. Conditions from 7900 ft to the top were 6 inches of powder on top of an older frozen layer of snow. It was cold and very windy near and at the top, my partner turned back because of cold, wind, and fatigue. I did not stay long at the crater rim. Beware of cornices on the crater rim. I used mountaineering boots, crampons, a trekking pole, and a whippet pole. Bring lots of clothing including a good pair of gloves and face covering if you plan on doing this soon.