With a perfect window of great weather and low avalanche danger, my buddy and I decided to try for a winter summit of St. Helens.
We spent a very cold night in the Marble Mountain Snow Park. Only a few cars were there at the time, but a good number drove in between 12-3AM. We had a bit of a late start and rolled out around 5:45AM. It was compact, icy snow from the start. My buddy was in his skins and ski boots and I was in my mountaineering boots. The path was easy to follow with lots of boot prints from the previous days. We crossed Chocolate Falls and then cleared the tree line. It was a little rocky on some of the low flows with a decent slope on climbers left and cornices to the right, but we did our best to stay on the snow instead of having to scramble. I put on my crampons and got out my ice axe shortly before the weather station, as the final push there was very steep and icy. I had some issues getting my axe to bite nicely, but my crampons were solid.
After the weather station it was starting to get softer in the warm sun. We actually got really hot on the climb. Just below the false summit, we followed the trail to the right instead of hitting it head on because it's extremely steep right now. Everyone else also followed the path to the right for the final push, and then angled back to the left near the top. The last push was really steep. We hit it at a good time where there was some soft snow on top and then harder on the bottom so we had enough purchase with our gear but weren't sliding on mashed potato snow like those who came after us.
The top was stunning! We did not go to the true summit because it was very corniced and dangerous. We met a lovely St. Helen's Institute volunteer there who warned us of a big overhang even where we were. We could see all the way to the Sisters to the south. After snacks and a few pics, we started heading down.
My friend was on his touring set and I just side stepped down the steep part. It was mushy as I was sliding a bit so I took it slow. Without much drama we made it down to the weather station and then to the Falls, and had a long haul back to the lot.
We both carried 3L of water. It was very warm on the snow with the sun. We both carried avalanche gear to be safe even with the low risk. We heard that the night of the 13th a big storm rolled in, so stay safe out there!
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