Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Sunday, Apr. 19, 2015

South Cascades > Mount St. Helens

We went down the night before and camped off a little spur in the road a little bit past the Sno-Park. Pretty good campsite. Got colder at night than I expected. A few mosquitoes out, but did not get bitten. Drove by the road to Climbers Bivouac, which is still closed. So we did the winter route. We hit the trail about 8 AM the next morning. The first couple miles are an easy walk through forest, but you'll pay for it with the elevation gain. As the trail starts climbing out of the forest the path gets steeper and rockier, until it's a scramble over rocks. Some of these along a steep gully were pretty precarious, so had to take it slow and careful. By the 5000 ft range snow started getting more and more widespread, though in some places it was a still possible to walk on rocks. The snow was getting fairly slushy but we did not sink in too much following the boot tracks. Microspikes and poles worked well, but it would be pretty slippery without traction. A few people had snowshoes, but I would rather sink a bit in the snow than work that hard for that much of a climb. From then on, just a slog through increasingly steeper snowfields. Took many short breaks, huffed and puffed, but eventually made it to the top around 12:30. The day was a bit hazy but the view from the top was great. People were wisely staying well back from the cornice at the crater rim, but it was still possible to get a good view of the crater and lava dome. Left the top about 1:00. On the way down, we were able to glissade about 3000 vertical feet until the snow petered out and got too soft to effectively walk through. From there, it was more scrambling over rocks, something my knees were no longer excited about. By the time we hit the woods again, temps were in the 70s. Made it back to the car around 3:30 for the long drive back to Seattle area. Easily the toughest hike I've done, but went better than I expected. Bring lots of food, water and sun protection, take your time, and enjoy the glissading while it lasts. At this rate the mountain is going to be bare before too long.