Drove from Seattle on Friday 4/16 and camped at Eagle Cliff campground, about 30 mins from the TH. On Saturday 4/17 we got up at 4am and drove to Marble Mountain Snow park – the trailhead for Worm Flows – the winter route on Mount St. Helens. Started our hike at 5am. By 6am we were out of the forest and enjoyed beautiful sunrise on the mountain. Snow was fairly slushy at lower elevations, but more firm and icy towards the top. Took us 6 hours to get to the summit. We reached the summit exactly at 11am. Handful of hikers, mostly skiers and snowboarders. Easy trail to follow, good conditions, beautiful sunny day, little windy on the approach, but wind died down later on. Spent about 30 mins on the top taking pictures and taking in the views. After that we put on our snow pants and glissaded down the mountain all the way to the tree line. Took about one hour. Glissade route was good, fast and easy to follow, we were using ice axe to break on the way down. Got down to the car at 2pm and drove back to Seattle. All along, great day to be on the mountain, glad we scored permits for Saturday! Not crowded at all, which was nice to see.
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Responses
Awesome write-up! What was the total vertical gain and one way mileage from that route?
It is about 6 miles one way and 5700 AEG 🙂 its a pretty steady climb, with the last 2 miles being steep but we had some good steps kicked in which was nice! No need for crampons either, spikes were enough.
Gorgeous! Hadn’t thought about hiking this early, so glad to hear it went so well and is completely doable!