We got a permit to do summit climb on June 18 with my son’s Boy Scout troop. While we hoped to use the shorter summer Monitor Ridge route, weather did not help in this cold and wet year. It seems the summer route is closed for a few more weeks. As such we took the longer Worm Flow route.
As we got closer to June 18, the weather forecast changed from excellent sunny to cloudy/light rain in the morning. :( We stayed at Cougar over night, and got to Marble Mountain SnoPark trail head at 6AM. It was cloudy with rain. We put on rain jacket and pack cover, hit the trail expecting this will be a boring hike with no view.
The first half of the hike had little elevation gain and challenge. A few climbers came down confirming our low expectation: very low visibility at top. We met a party that decided not to go up on that day. This beginning part of the route had surprisingly large amount of snow on the trail, mostly due to the lack of good sun coverage in those sections. As we got higher up, the trail became clear from snow.
After Chocolate Falls, the path got harder to navigate. With rain and fog, we could not see the mountain as we hiked up. We checked map and GPS to ensure we were on the right path. There were a lot of rocks and boulders that significantly slowed down our climb up. While they were not hard to get over, it was not an easy walk in the park. After 5000 feet elevation, the snow field got larger and larger. There were still rocky path most of the way, the snow field became the easier path.
We put on crampons, helmet and ice axes as we go higher up. They were really important as the snow field got very steep and icy at places. While I saw one guy going up with none of those, he did not appear to enjoy his experience. That was certainly a big safety risk.
As we got into late morning, the sky opened up. We were rewarded with blue sky, beautiful clouds and wonderful views to Mt Adams and Mt Jefferson. We stopped frequently to admire the view, and enjoy the moving ocean of clouds. The sudden change also meant that everyone needed to put on strong sun glasses and sun screen lotion. Luckily we were prepared with those too. Alas, many of us still got strong sun tan/burn from the trip. Never underestimate UV reflection from a high mountain.
The last 3000 ft elevation climb was very strenuous, on mostly open snow field. The summit looked incredibly close, yet the climb seemly took forever. At last we reached the summit after 1pm. That was way slower than our original plan. By this time, the sky was very clear. From the summit rim, we could clearly saw Mt Rainier to the north. Mt Adams was the giant neighbor to our east. The clouds were way below us, forming a nice blanket. What a long and wonderful climb!
After a bit of rest, we ventured around the summit to look inside the volcano crater. We could see smokes coming out from gaps of the rocks. The dome inside the crater appeared to be bigger than what I saw in 2012 when I climbed in mid summer. I took some photos so I could compare it back home. Sure enough, it did grow quite a bit in five years!
Coming down the mountain was much easier. We took the opportunity to glissade down the snow field. That was a lot of fun! However there were some rocks as we got to lower altitude. We switched to hiking down. We could now clearly see the mountain in our back as we hike down. No more fog or cloud. It took us a long time to get back to the parking lot. Everyone was super tired for the long day, but excited by the summit experience.
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