Mt. St. Helens

Mt. St. Helens is the most active volcano in the Cascade range. Though the mountain is most famous for its 1982 eruption, where it lost 1300 vertical feet and nearly a third of its mass, Mt. St. Helens was fully active as recently as 2008.

I had made two previous, unsuccessful attempt at Mt. St. Helens. Each time we were forced to turn back by whiteout conditions. Originally we scheduled this trip for the following day. But, seeing the onset of a new weather system, we bought some resale permits online and headed to the mountain a day early. I did not want to get skunked again.

Jake and I loaded up the car and battled Portland afternoon traffic for an hour before finally getting on our way to the mountain. Our plan was to start from the Marble Mountain parking lot, and ascend the standard Swift Glacier route to the summit. We were hoping there would be enough snow to ski directly from the parking lot, but when we arrived we found that a few days of high temps had melted the snow out for the first mile or so of the nearly 3 mile approach. Our hopes of pulling a pulk and camping at treeline evaporated. Instead we camped in the parking lot.

 We started hiking at around 6:00 am, and arrived at tree line a little over an hour later. Weather was clear on the ascent, the ascent route was pretty obvious. By the time we entered the upper bowl, the sun was beating down on us. We summited around 11am. From the summit we had an amazing views of Adams, Hood, and Rainer, in addition to  a spectacular view of the crater.

The Crater

We hung out on the summit for a while, refueling and enjoying the view. After about half an hour we noticed the predicted weather creep up over the horizon. It was time to ski down.  We skied right side of the top bowl,  and stayed along the the ascent route all the way down to tree line. Just as we were reaching the end of the snow, the rain started to fall. We packed up the car and grabbed a burger and beer in Cougar.                 

The Route:                                 

Start: Marble Mountain parking area                             Ascent: ~5500 ft. The standard winter/spring route starts from the Worm Flows parking lot. From there it follows the trail through a dense, flat forrest for a little less than 3 miles before it opens up above tree line. After around three miles, you will arrive at Chocolate Falls, though it's unlikely that the falls will be flowing when you're there. Follow the prominent ridge line that leads right up to the base of the summit. From there, it's just a few switchbacks to the top.                                 
Descent: There are a multitude of lines descending of the summit of Mt. St. Helens, and they are all good. There are numerous ridgelines, gullies, and open bowls to play around in. Just be sure you end up at the right spot when you reach treeline, because otherwise you will expend a fair amount of effort traversing back.  Chocolate Falls is a good reference point. If you carry a GPS, it may be a good idea to mark a waypoint at tree line so you can find the trail if conditions turn sour. 

Jake skinning above the "Worm Flows"

Approaching the summit