Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Thursday, Mar. 14, 2024

What a perfect day in the mountains! Hiked up and skied down with a buddy. 

I woke up at 3:30 in Seattle and drove down to Woodland where I met my buddy who came up from Portland. He left his car in the Woodland Park and Ride and we carpooled to the Marble Mountain Snow Park. Saw three herds of elk along the road. It was plowed all the way, and my Subaru Impreza had no problem navigating the road or parking lot. Couple of other cars in the parking lot, looked like four groups of mountaineers and one group of snowmobilers. Bathrooms were open and maintained. 

Started moving at 8:30. Snow was very firm and compact from the trailhead. My buddy brought his snowshoes but I opted to leave mine in the car and just used microspikes. The first couple miles went by very quickly. I did a fair amount of post-holing-- not enough to really stop me, but enough to make me think "Dang, I should have brought my snowshoes..." When we got out of the trees, I continued post-holing while my buddy had a good time with his snowshoes. The post-holing largely stopped when we got up on the Worm Flows so it was really only a problem for the first couple hours. 

We stopped for lunch at the monitor station and then trudged the rest of the way up. The snow got warm and sticky at about noon which made for rough going with my micro spikes. My snowshoe friend had no problems with the snow (but it was no less of a slog, he said). The snow stickiness stopped after we ascended another 2000' or so. There was not an established boot track yet after last weekend's storm cycle.

We hit the summit after 7 hours, which was euphoric. The views were insane. We could see as far north as Mount Baker and as far south as the Three Sisters which says that there was about 180 mi of visibility from the top. Conditions at the top were very calm. No wind, just warm sunshine (which defied our expectations). Hung out for an hour up there. We were not the only people to summit that day, we think that four others did. We also saw two guys who called it a day near the top before skiing down.

We skied down and there was a distinct crust on the snow which made turning difficult but it still beats hiking down any day. The snow really softened up beneath the monitor station, which was fantastic for skiing. Made it back to the car in an hour and a half because we stopped a lot on the ski down because our legs were limp noodles after the hike up.

Did not see any signs of avalanche activity on the main mountain. At the very end of the day we saw signs of wet slides on very steep aspects a ways off the main route. I imagine that will continue as the weather stays warm. 

Dropped my buddy off in Woodland around 8, got home to Seattle just before 11. Very sore today - kinda feel like I got hit by a truck, but I'm still riding the high of yesterday's gorgeous adventure. :)