Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Sunday, May. 23, 2010

South Cascades > Mount St. Helens

We left from Seattle on Sat afternoon, got into Cougar, WA, about 8:30pm, picked up our permits, and slept in our car at the Marblemount parking lot. There are toilets and a shelter with a fireplace at the parking lot. It wasn't very comfortable sleeping in the car, but it may have been a blessing in disguise, as we got a very early start. On the way up, we saw 3 or 4 other groups, and about that many groups already coming down. But on our way down, we saw a virtual highway of climbers making their way up. They give out 100 permits a day, and there definitely seemed like there were 100 people on the slope in the afternoon. The only advantage to going later would be that there's a clearly-marked track, but the disadvantage, of course, is being in a very long, slow-moving line. On our way up, every group we met coming down said they turned back about 1,000 feet from the rim. Visibility was extremely low. We were very fortunate that when we got to the 1,000 feet mark, we met up with a group that was more experienced, and more determined to go all the way. They cut steps and used a GPS and managed to get to the rim. In fact, everyone who went up that day probably used their tracks. Visibility was pretty nil at the rim, and it was very cold. We didn't stay very long at all. The weather that day was very overcast, with occasional snow and pretty steady wind. I recommend: Crampons were very helpful. We used them for 80% of the climb, and didn't use our snowshoes at all. Get as early a start as you can. We left at 7 and that worked out pretty well. Bring a sled of some sort for the way down. Fun! Bring your own markers if you're going up early. There were only three before the rim, and footsteps get covered over almost immediately by the wind.