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Mount St. Helens/Worm Flows

Trip

Winter Scramble - Mount St. Helens/Worm Flows

Spring scramble up Mount Saint Helens

Contacts

Nathan Starr
Nathan Starr
Primary Leader
Qualified Youth Leader
  • Strenuous 5, Technical 4, Winter Scramble
  • Challenging
  • Mileage: 12.0 mi
  • Elevation Gain: 5,700 ft
  • High Point Elevation: 8,366 ft
  • Pace: 1,000 ft/hr

TBD Friday late afternoon/evening from Olympia

We have 12 passes.

Leader's permission required. 

We will bivy at the Marble Mountain Sno-Park and begin hiking at 5am on Saturday, May 5, while the snow is still firm. We'll head up past Chocolate Falls and the 4800ft marker trying for a pace of 1,000ft per hour, leaving the 4800ft marker by 7:30am.

 After that, we’ll continue assessing conditions, route and weather, and keep going, planning to reach the 5600ft marker by 8:30.

 Again, we’ll take a short break, assess, switch out gear if needed (snowshoes, crampons, spikes… poles for axes…, helmets on, etc…) and be off as soon as people have eaten, drunk, etc… and geared up.

 From here, we have 2700 ft to go, but expect to slow down a little as the grade steepens and conditions become more icy or snowy. The goal is to reach the summit by noon at a pace of 900 ft/hr.

 We have a little wiggle room, with a 1 pm turnaround time.

 The descent should take 4 hours, especially if we have safe glissading conditions. After a dinner stop in Cougar or Woodland, we hope to get back to Olympia by 10 pm.    

 All this of course is weather dependent, which can always be a gamble at this time of year.

Route/Place

Mount St. Helens/Worm Flows


  • USGS Mt St Helens
    Green Trails Mount St Helens NVM No. 332S
    Green Trails Mt St Helens NW No. 364S
  • See full route/place details.
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Required Equipment

Required Equipment

  • The Ten Essentials
  • Helmet
  • Crampons
  • Snowshoes*
  • Microspikes*
  • Ice Axe
  • Mountaineering Boots
  • $12.50 for climbing permit and gas money for driver and money for dinner on way there and back.

We will split emergency gear between the group - shovel, bivy sack or sleeping bag, stove/fuel, avy probe. 

*Closer to the date, when we get some solid beta, we may be able to jettison one of these traction devices. For now, count on carrying all three.

Check with leader for any additional group gear or required equipment specific to trip location

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