Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023

WARNING: the following report is only for the snow conditions on Feb.11, weather could change significantly afterwards,I strongly recommend checking the NWAC website and mountainforecast website for avalanche and safety issues.

Report: I finally made it to the top of mount st.Helens! Although not actually the real summit, hiking in the snow with just microspikes and trekking poles while reaching the false summit on volcano rim Viewpoint(around 8250ft) was an arduous workout( 5600 ft elevation gain in 11 miles). It was my first time on the wormsflow route to st.Helens. Previously I only hiked the Harry’s ridge trail and had a distant view of the mountain. thanks to the earlier hikers who had broken trails, I could simply step on safe spots to ascend. The view was gorgeous all the way from chocolate falls to the top. on my way down I even tried a bit of glissading with my ice axe. It was also my first time doing it on steeper terrain. The weather was perfect yesterday, sunny almost no wind before summit(summit was about 10-15 I think) . When we were moving , the temperature felt like in the 50s. I just have one base layer for the last 2000ft hike. But remember to bring extra layers, once I stop for breaks, it got cold and chilly quickly. The snow was packed when we hiked up from 7:30am, but got a lot softer on the way downhill. I postholed a lot. Snowshoes will be helpful too. I saw a lot of people wearing mountaineering shoes and sharp crampons , that makes it better to Climb uphill. Altogether I just drank about 1 liter of water, but it could be a lot more for others( one guy in our group drank 3L!), so it’s better to carry enough water especially with electrolytes. Also don’t forget to bring headlamps, it could take more than 10 hours for the whole hike.