May 10, 2001, Mt. St. Helens

Climbers Bivouac still not open, but forecast was good, so we went to Marblemount SnoPark (What a nifty party set up for snowmobilers!); along the way we bought our annual climbing permit to go with our annual snopark permit and annual trailpark pass and annual national park pass ... . Left the car at 6:50 a.m. carrying skis on pack, 3/4 miles of dirt trail, then snow. 5 hours later we had gained 5,000 vf in 4+ miles, Regine mostly on skins (Ascension) and my G-3 skins and Rainey crampons indadequate for the icey-transforming-to-corn snow. Our 1st trip up the Worm Flows route and we were pleasantly surprised at the steepness (and unprepared--I should have brought my shaped Ascension). It was clear, windless, and hot on the way up; almost enough to make you nausesous. Lots of exposed dirt/rock on ridges. A couple of hundred vertical below the crater rim, at noon, the corn was near perfect and we decided to forego yet another crater view to make the best advantage of the corn. Traversed to the west a bit and rapidly descended on fantatstic corn all the way to about 4,500 ft. Then the snow started getting sloppy and patchy in places. Had to remove/replace skis. Still it was possible to ski out a good ways below Chocolate Falls after crossing the creek down below. Snow was sloppy, but of course the grade there is mild. By 3 p.m. we were on the way home--could have hurried down the trail and been out of there by 2 p.m. or so. abc