The weather forecast for the weekend was clear, cold, and sunny. Living in the coastal mountains within a near-constant precipitating cloud in winter time, I was surprised and charmed.
And it definitely meant it was time to escape the lowlands and get up high.
Mount Saint Helens was the last of the five Washington volcanos I had yet to summit and so the plan was set. We packed our bags and spent the night at the Marble Mtn Sno-Park, the starting point for the climb, with alarms set for 2:30am.
When my alarm went off, I felt abnormally clear-minded for this hour of the morning as I spent the whole night in that sort of sleep state where you don’t know if you really are asleep because you’re still forming thoughts except you’re not so much in control of them as witness to them. I quickly dressed, brushed my teeth, and ate a protein bar. Outside the car, there were a couple of other headlamps bobbing around in the parking lot.
The winter route, called the Worm Flows, climbs just under 6,000 feet of vertical gain and about 5.5 miles from the Marble Mountain Sno-park to the summit. The primary concerns for this route are avalanches and a large cornice over 10-30ft that forms on the crater’s rim. Avalanche risk according to the Northwest Avalanche Center was low. After a rather warm week, temperatures were forecasted to be in the single digits near the summit so we opted for boots and crampons rather than skis since we figured the weather would make for an icy, bone-rattling ski descent.
The first section of the trail to Chocolate Falls is in the forest. We walked briskly to try to keep warm against the cold night air.
After passing the falls, the mountain came into view, a vague silhouette in the dark night sky illuminated faintly by the stars and waning moon. We continued up and up on icy snow slopes, the destination obvious.
First light began peeking around the edges of the horizon at 6:45am-ish, just as I was starting to feel sluggish. The mountains always know how to dangle a carrot in front of your nose. I pushed onward.
We arrived at the summit at 7:15am and watched the sun peep over the horizon, taking in views of Mount Adams and down into Oregon of Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson.
We started our descent at 8am. The icy nature of the snow made it difficult to plunge step, which resulted in a lot of steps with the front part of my foot jamming down into the snow. RIP toenails. Unfortunately, literally.
As we worked our way down the mountain, we passed many other groups on their ascent. The sun was out and the mountain was lively. As always, the last couple of miles felt the longest as we plotted our way through the wooded section from Chocolate Falls to the trailhead. We reached the car at 11:30am and, having eaten our best snacks, headed straight for the nearest gas station for some yum snackies and electrolytes.
I truly couldn’t have asked for a nicer January day to make a winter ascent of Mount Saint Helens. I already can’t wait to visit this magical mountain again.
Route & Beta
- The winter route, called the Worm Flows, climbs just under 6,000 feet of vertical gain from the parking lot to the crater rim and is 10.5 miles roundtrip.
- The primary concerns for this route are avalanches and a large cornice of 10-30 feet that forms on the crater’s rim. We mitigated these risks by carrying avalanche equipment, made our summit bid on a day with a low avalanche risk rating from Northwest Avalanche Center, and stayed 30 feet back from the edge of the cornice.
- I am a fan of an early start. A 3am start from the trailhead put us on summit at 7:15am. After about 45 mins of lollygagging, we started the descent at 8am and reached the trailhead by 11:30am.
