Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Saturday, May. 2, 2015

South Cascades > Mount St. Helens

Started at 7.30am in a bit cold/foggy weather, there were already around 15 cars in parking lot at Marble Mountain Sno-park for the winter route, we registered, grabbed the bags for permit and started heading out. It was a pleasant gradual walk in the wooded area until we got out of the trees, it became really sunny and hot. We crossed what we believed was the river path. After passing 4800ft, the trail became a bit challenging with boulders and sandy ground, and some rocks were loose so having trekking poles were helpful. There were at least 100 ppl we saw that day both coming down and also hiking up. After reaching the seismic station, we continued with the first snow trail though you could also go up on the boulder trail that ran in parallel. With crampons, we felt hiking up on snow was easier and faster though the snow was a little icy but ready to start melting. It felt like forever to reach the top around 12.30pm. There were like 30-40 ppl up at the rim enjoying the view of Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier, less than 10 ppl hiked further to the real summit. We stayed for 30 mins and decided to glissade down as more and more people arrived. We used existing glissade shoot to go down, but be aware of which direction the shoot led you otherwise you might end up on another side of the mountain. We ended up taking 3-4 shoots to get back to the seismic station in 40 mins or so. Using an ice axe for the first time to control the speed was manageable. Hiking down the boulders was quick but dangerous with loose ground, recommend using the trekking poles. You would be completely covered in dust by the time you got back to the trailhead. Took us 9 hrs altogether, we got back to our car around 4.30pm to find out we have a cracked windshield :(