Trip Report
Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Friday, May. 1, 2015
South Cascades > Mount St. Helens
After a weekend of moving followed by a week of fighting the crud (which is still hanging around in my lungs), I finally made it back into the mountains. I probably would’ve went somewhere a bit less challenging since I wasn’t quite 100% but I bought the permit months ago and it was my big 5-0 birthday. This was my fifth attempt and fourth successful summit of Mt. St. Helens, the last success was on my birthday last year. Once again, I lucked out with gorgeous weather for my birthday hike.
The climber’s bivouac is not open yet (the USFS website says mid-May but I drove up the road just to check) so the trail begins at the Marble Mountain sno-park and is a bit longer and gains more elevation then the Monitor Ridge route. There were a handful of cars in the parking lot when I arrived a little before 8:00am.
I began the hike shortly after 8:00am. The trail starts off gently winding through the shaded forest, which makes for a great warm up on the way up and wind down on the return. Once out of the forest I stopped to put on sunscreen and sunglasses and to take off a layer. The trail still is fairly moderate for a while longer before the steep rocky climb up the spine begins. Around 5650’ is a flat area that is home to a seismic monitoring station and is more or less the end of the boulder climbing. Snow began a little further on around 6000’ and was soft enough to kick in steps but firm enough not to post hole. There was definitely no need for snowshoes and I was glad I left mine in the car. The wind started to pick up there and really picked up after the false summit, where I stopped to add a bunch of layers. I also put on crampons at the false summit when the snow started getting a bit icier. It was possible to make it up without crampons but it was a lot easier with them on.
I arrived at the summit at 1:25pm, five hours and fifteen minutes from the parking lot. There were three other people at the summit when I arrived but there were another six or ten right behind me. It wasn’t very windy at the summit, unlike the approach, but it was chilly so I threw on my parka. The view was fantastic. Despite the cornice, it was still possible to get close enough to the edge to get a good view of the crater and dome and a couple steam vents below. A co-worker just finished brewing his first batch of beer just a week or so ago and I happened to bring a bottle with me. What better way to celebrate my birthday! Luckily a fellow hiker had a bottle opener as I didn’t quite prepare for that. I stayed at the summit for an hour and a half enjoying a BLT, the beer, and the amazing view.
I started back down at 2:55pm. It’s possible to glissade large portions of the way from the summit to just above the seismic monitoring station at 5650’. What took two hours and forty-five minutes up from that point only took forty-five minutes down. That was quite the fun slide. Unfortunately not a whole lot of time was saved the rest of the way down as climbing down rocks almost sucks as much as climbing up them. The way back through the forest was a great wind down though it seemed to go on forever. I finally made it back to the parking lot at 5:40pm for a total return time of two hours and forty-five minutes.
Comments