Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Sunday, Apr. 13, 2014

South Cascades > Mount St. Helens

Hiked/skied to the summit of Mount St. Helens on Sunday after spending Saturday night sleeping under the stars at 3700'. Snow doesn't start until about 1.25 miles in on the trail. The full moon reflected off the snow so brightly that you didn't need a headlamp. We woke up at 5am and were on the trail by 6am. We only skinned with our skis for a short period of time before strapping them to our backs and hiking the rest of the way to the summit. The bootprints from the previous day were frozen into the snow which made for convenient stairs up the steeper sections of the trail. The snowshoers and hikers with crampons definitely had an advantage on the firm snow. We reached the crater rim around 10:30am and the sun was definitely beginning to soften the snow up. We had perfectly clear skies which offered amazing views. At 11:30am the snow was soft enough to ski on and we rode down. I heard that 260 permits were sold for Sunday and there were definitely a lot of people on the trail. Also a lot of unprepared people - some wearing blue jeans! As we made it back to the car there were still people heading up even though the snow was getting very soft and the risk of loose-wet avalanches was increasing. Be safe out there everyone and be sure to have avalanche equipment with you. Overall this was a trip of a lifetime. Make sure you're in shape for ~6,000 feet of elevation gain over 6 miles on the way up. Or if you're like me just be really persistent and keep moving forward slowly! More pictures and details can be found on our blog: http://bobbyandmaura.com/snowshoeing/mount-st-helens GPX of our trip: http://www.hillmap.com/m/ag1zfmhpbGxtYXAtaGRychULEghTYXZlZE1hcBiAgICAk7TSCAw