Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Friday, May. 11, 2018

South Cascades > Mount St. Helens

Car camped at Marble Mountain Sno Park the night before and hit the trail the next morning at 5:30 am. Many other people were up as well starting the hike, and it was busier than I thought. The first two miles before leaving the tree line were fairly flat and snow covered. We all pulled out our micro-spikes about half a mile in for traction. Once you leave the tree line the trail becomes less defined but honestly there’s so many well established tracks in the snow and other people around that it isn’t difficult at all to navigate your way to the main lava flow that takes you to the summit past Monitor Ridge. Unfortunately, at around 8 am we got caught in a NASTY wind storm at monitor ridge (nearly blowing people over) and didn’t deem it safe to continue up the steep snowfield to the summit above- especially since we didn’t have any ice axes- which in hindsight I HIGHLY recommend bringing. We were able to glissade a bit however considering the snow got a bit slushy and we never picked up a dangerous amount of speed. All in all, a beautiful experience on the mountain and a great way to experience how weather on the mountain can change on a dime. I’ll be back later with an ice axe to complete the summit. It honestly wasn’t very exhausting considering how slow moving it is climbing up the lava flows. All those big rocks make moving slow so that you never get too tired. Snow hiking next to the lava flows is an option as well if you’re comfortable, and you’d definitely move quicker there. The real slogs are those steep snowfields to Monitor Ridge and to the summit. Bring appropriate gear: ice axe, crampons/microspikes, gaiters if you’d like although not necessary, trekking poles, hat, sunglasses, sunscreen..etc.