Trip Report
Basic Alpine Climb - Mount St. Helens/Worm Flows
Snow sporadic, muddy and slushy from parking lot, you may be able to put on skis around a mile in. No snowshoes needed.
Liana Robertshaw
- Sat, May 5, 2018 — Sun, May 6, 2018
- Basic Alpine Climb - Mount St. Helens/Worm Flows
- Mount St. Helens/Worm Flows
- Climbing
- Successful
- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Snow slushy and intermittent from parking lot until about 1/2 mile in. After that, snow is soft through Chocolate Falls. No snowshoes needed. Snow was soft and really wet with a slightly hard crust above 7000ft. Be careful of moats around rocks and watch for any signs of avalanches, there was rock and snow debris in the gullys and bowls and a few cornices to watch out for.
Camped above the falls at about 4100 ft. and saw recent avy debris in the bowl to the left of the climbers bootpath. Awoke at 4am and left camp at first light, 5am, along the ridge towards the summit. It was raining during the night but hovering around freezing and we did wear crampons out of camp but it was still pretty soft. Beware of moats along the rocky ridgeline...we stayed nearly 5 feet away from the rocks on the ascent due to the soft snow and deep holes. Stay to the left of the rocky ridge, the right gully is full of avalanche debris and recent rockfall. The snow had a harder crust further up the route which probably made for better skiing on the way down. Summitted around 915 and it began hailing. Glissading was wet and slushy but there are a few good tracks...steer clear of the tracks on the East side of the route as they take you through that sketchy gully with the snow and rock debris. Overall a fun trip!