Mt St Helens

Perfect Day on the hill.

One intermediate mountaineer and two hikers new to long volcano hikes using ice axe and crampons.  Parked at Marble Mountain TH.  Left parking lot at 4am and made it to worm flows around sunrise.  Snow beginning about one mile up trailThrew on our crampons halfway up worm ridges.  Perfect purchase.  Solid snow all the way up.  Summited around 11am, decent starting around 12pm (perfect bluebird day, little wind).  Soft snow perfect for glissading starting around 11am (If I were a skier I would start down at this time.).  My friends quickly learned why I had them start so early in the morning as they were having a blast sliding down 4,000' of soft snow while we watched others trudging up, slipping backwards a little with every step in the softer snow and baking in the sun.  Last three miles were a slog, as always, but well worth it!