Camped at Marble Mountain Sno-Park and hit the trailhead about 5:30AM. This was a little bit later than we had intended to start however we had plenty of daylight by that time and didn't need to use headlamps as we thought we would. Weather forecast called for a high of 74 degrees and sunny skies. SUNSCREEN, sunglasses, head coverings are a must. I applied sunscreen twice and was pretty burned.
Encountered patchy but easily navigable snow about 1.5 miles into the trail while still in the dense trees. Hit more consistent snow after the Chocolate Falls area. My group and I took different routes up the ridge below the weather station. I climbed the rocky ridge, following an easy-to-see path and made good time up to a spot just below the weather station. My group stuck to the snow and battled slushy conditions and traffic jams. I put crampons on at the weather station and never took them off until the summit.
Made good but slow progress up to the head wall due to somewhat slushy snow. Saw other climbers taking a longer but more gradual route around the head wall to reach the false summit. Our group kick-stepped a path up the head wall saving lots of time and forging a trail for the climbers behind. Reached the summit around 1:30PM and spent quite a bit of time taking pictures and celebrating the mountaintop engagement of two of our group members. Crater view was partially blocked by a large cornice that we stayed away from. Clear views of Mt. Adams, Hood, and Jefferson all day long, and Mt. Rainier greeted us at the summit.
We were the last group to leave the summit around 3:30 PM (although we saw a group pretty far down that was headed up.) We glissaded down most of the way, going down some pretty steep (but fun!) chutes along the head wall. I only brought a trash bag for glissading (terrible idea) and switched to riding down on my rain jacket after the first slide. I felt every bump and piece of ice, and have scrapes and bruises as a result. The rest of my group was better prepared with rain pants and we saw other climbers with plastic sleds. We encountered some rocks that were just beginning to appear through the melting snow, including some small crevices, that weren't visible from the top of the glissade chute. Made it back to the car around 5:30PM.
Due to the warm weather, this hike will probably be completely different within a week or two. We brought ice axes, crampons, trekking poles, and I had microspikes (that I never used.) Used the poles for balance in the snow and only used the ice axe for glissading. The crampons made navigating the snow very manageable, although we saw several people without them. Again, sunscreen is a must!
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