Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Saturday, Jun. 15, 2013

South Cascades > Mount St. Helens

stayed at lone fir lodge overnight, and started the hike through the winter route (worm flow) up to the summit (climbers bivuoac is closed this time of year). Registered our hike at lone fir, and we started the hike around 5am with a group of about a dozen people. you pass through the forest with very little elevation gain and pass by campers for around 2 miles before you reach the base of the mountain, where you'll have to either hike up snow or climb through a ridge of boulders and ash. i personally went with the rocks, but had trouble stabilizing my footing on the sand-like ash. some people in our party followed the snow trail just below the rock ridge and said it alot easier. after 2 miles of either scrambling or snow hiking, youll have no choice but to hike up snow for the last mile up to the summit. we just followed the kicked in steps that previous hikers made to go up. once we got up to the top, we avoided the cornice - youll see that its just an overhang of snow, so avoid the temptation of standing on the ledge once you get up. instead, hike to the east for a little bit to get a better view of the lava dome. we glissaded down the snow slopes most of our way down until we reached the rocky parts of the trail. wear waterproof pants and you can glissade down the slopes relatively easily. lift your legs up to increase your speed and dig your boots down to slow down. once you get to a certain point, watch out for rocks embedded in the snow. we had minimal gear, saw many people with ice picks, but don't believe them to be necessary. this was a non technical climb, and the only things that you would need apart from the obvious would be trekking poles, waterproof hiking boots, and gaiters. mountaineering boots aren't needed unless you plan on hiking up snow the entire way.