On Friday, April 30, 2021 the team attempted Mount St. Helens via the Worm Flows Route. After camping under clear skies at the trailhead, rain and wind moved in as we started out in the early morning.
The team taking a break near the treeline.
Snow covered the trail almost immediately as we entered the woods from Marble Mountain Sno Park. Using microspikes, we followed a well-established bootpath and quickly moved the 2.5 miles to the treeline. As we gained altitude, the weather slowly became an issue as the wind and rain picked up. We finally decided to turn back around 7,000 feet as conditions deteriorated and routefinding became a challenge.
The location where we decided to turn around.
Despite the inclement weather, we still found time for an epic glissade. The late-April snow was perfect and enabled us to drop elevation in a hurry. We also successfully tested out a new glissade device called the “Alpine Scooty Booty” from the Portland-based NÖR HEX Gear Co.
Glissading below the seismic sensor on the Worm Flows Route.
Click here to view more photos from the climb. And here for a glissade video.
Overall, it was a great day. We didn’t summit, but we found adventure on an active volcano.