Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Wednesday, May. 21, 2025

Road is paved all the way up to the Sno-Park trailhead. Tried to drive up to Climbers Bivouac trailhead but hit deep snow about 2 miles short. Google maps has the road between the two trailheads as closed but it is in fact open. Started hiking up & hit intermittent snow 1/2 mile past the old gravel quarry, continuing pretty much all the way up to the intersection with the Loowit Trail. It should be melted in the next 2-3 weeks but for now is easy to cross & very much packed down until right before the intersection, which is post holey for maybe 1/8 mile. After the Loowit intersection, we followed the rocky/boulder ridge, which was snow free for the next couple of miles &/or couple of thousand feet of scrambly ascent. Just below the weather station, we ran out of rocky ridge & put on our micro spikes. From this point to the crater rim was all on snow with easy to see boot pack. Most others I saw had ice axes. I made it work with my poles. Another group I saw had no poles or axes & did make the crater rim. I guess most brought the axes for the glissade down. The hike down was wet & slushy so start earlier than we did at 8:30am if you are not skiing or glissading down. Advisory: If you want to look down into the caldera, hike this in the Summer after the snow melts. As of now, the whole crater rim has an overhanging soft, mushy snow cornice. Only a small part of the rim has been flagged to stay behind & is easy to miss.