Drove in from PDX, spent the night of July 3rd tenting at one of the very nice campsites surrounding Marble Mt sno-park. No water, but two composting toilets. Definitely some loud voices at dusk, dawn and a couple points throughout the night. Woke up at sunrise, on the trail just before 7:30.
Took us 1 hour to get through the gentle path through the forest, another 15 min to Chocolate falls, then out into the heat of the sun. Hats, sunscreen, and plenty of water became quite important at this point, as there was not a cloud in the sky past 630am. Sparse trees dotted the ridgeline, providing the occasional break from the sun, but these soon got smaller and smaller, eventually disappearing once we got onto the main 'worm'.
This section was laden with boulders and as we gained altitude, the steps got more difficult and required more planning. Trekking poles were very useful here. As we went up the ridge, more and more snow was in the gullies on either side, and you could occasionally go down and grab some to cool off from the still intense heat. The rocky ridge continued until just past the seismic station at 5600' feet, where the exposed rock shrunk and the snow started to dominate. Above this section, we had a choice between slippery ash and melty snow, and chose the latter, finding others' footprints to be much easier to walk in.
We pretty much stayed on the snow, occasionally resting on the exposed rock. By this point in the day, the snow had become soft and crampons were not required. However, an ice axe for stability and sunglasses/ski goggles for snowblindness were vital here. The last 2500 feet are all snow and steep as hell, though the false summit is the steepest bit. After that, it's just a push to the summit alongside glissade routes.
At this point, the rock was exposed on most of the rim, but not all. The trail basically led straight to a cornice, and we had to walk horizontally before hitting the rim to avoid being on unsteady snow. It was a beautiful clear day and we could see Hood, Jefferson, Adams, and Ranier, though the cornice snow extended too far out for us to see much of the crater itself. We got to the rim around 2:40pm (~7 hours to summit, and that seemed to be the average for most) and were worried about getting down with enough energy, so we didn't take the extra half hour to reach the true summit.
Getting down was a breeze, and the glissading was a blast. We packed away everything, cleared our pockets, padded our pants as much as we could, and slid down with our ice axes in hand. It looks crazy steep going up, but the friction keeps you from going too fast. If you want to go faster, use a tarp or a garbage bag--we didn't have one, and some bits were not steep enough for us to slide down with just pants, but we maintained a safe speed through the steeper ones.
The glissade routes down were clear, and the existing chutes that people were using were not hazardous as long as you were paying attention to the layout of the mountain. Be sure to take note of which way you want to go, as the route splits left and right, and you could potentially end up somewhere you didn't want to go. After you pass the seismic station, there are some much steeper bits that you definitely need an ice axe for. Many people choose to get back onto the rocky worm at this point, but we decided to take the train as far as it would go and needed to self arrest one or two times (looking downhill, we went to the left of the main worm). We ended up to the east of the main worm, and could not get back onto the rock. This turned out to be great, as we could walk on snow for longer and skip more of the boulders. Once the snow got too melty, there was a secondary path running parallel to the main ridge that we walked on, and it joined up with the main trail before long. The rest was simply a walk back along the easier parts of the trail back to the carpark.
All in all, we did the whole trip in 11 hours and 30 minutes. Exhausting but a great day.
PS: Make sure to bring enough water--we each drank over a gallon and had to ration by the end.
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