Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Sunday, May. 25, 2014

South Cascades > Mount St. Helens

First time hiking this route. We had a late start and did not make it to the crater in the interest in allowing plenty of time and avoiding the incoming rain system. The first part of the hike was a gentle climb up a usually wide forest path via the Swift Ski Trail. Upon exiting the forest, we walked along the Swift Creek area (no water in it) and crossed over where I presume Chocolate Falls would be if there was water. Lots of markers in the area, so going through rock was no problem. After crossing over, we began climbing a ridge that increased in steepness. Recommend gloves for grabbing onto the sharp volcanic rocks. There's a sign at 4800 ft noting that a climbing permit is required - oddly ran into quite a few people at Lone Fir Resort who were unaware that most of these have sold out for 2014 via the website. Permut.com is your friend. There is a rest spot among the rocks around 5600 feet where many people stopped to wait as other in their group went on, or to eat, etc. Pretty windy, so we got cold fast and started putting on our mid-layers here. Just after this, the snow started. Lots of footprints to follow, and we got to the snow when it was fairly soft. Lots of work to climb it. We used just boots, but had along crampons just in case. Did not use spikes. At around 6000 - 6300 ft we were in our shells and rain pants. Wind picked up quite a bit and it started to rain/sleet. We went up to nearly 7000 feet before decided to call it a day. Lots of fun glissade options on the way down, so you can avoid the rocky descent down the same path. Note that some glissades were rocky, so care needs to be taken, especially at lower elevations. More photos and descriptions: https://www.flickr.com/photos/robynw/sets/72157644863656575/