Road is snow free to the trailhead.
Started at around 7 AM surprised to see a mostly empty parking lot given the favorable forecast. It was fogged in and lightly raining at the start. First mile of the trail is intermittent packed snow and dirt, turning to all snow after a mile or so. The trail was beat down enough that I kept my snowshoes in my pack.
Quickly made my way across Swift Creek and started towards the ridge. Again, the boot path solid enough that I didn't need snowshoes. I was surprised by how little snow there was as I made my way onto the ridgeline starting at about 4,500'. Breaking trail began here but I was still able to make good time and the breaking clouds and blue sky above me put a smile on my face.
Then around 5,600', a hard layer of ice had developed over the softer snow and the going became a lot tougher as I started to kick steps to break through the ice layer to the softer stuff beneath. I put my crampons on after a few hundred vertical feet of this. I really slowed down at this point and eventually gave the lead to another duo so that I could reap the benefits of their steps.
We made the summit around 11:00 under blue skies with no wind. I decided to forego a trip to the true summit and just soaked in the views from the crater.
Headed down after about half an hour. The sun had really softened the ice and I was able to quickly plunge step my way down. By this time a very well beaten path had been created by the groups of climbers and I was a bit jealous of the staircase that had been created. I guess sometimes it doesn't pay to be the first up the mountain.
Made it back to my car by 1:15. Never found the need to put on my snowshoes or take out my ice axe but crampons were definitely helpful in the early morning. Finally, when I checked cell reception during the climb I didn't ever get a very good signal which was unusual for me as I typically get good reception over 7,000' with Verizon.
Trip Report
Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Saturday, Jan. 13, 2018
South Cascades > Mount St. Helens
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