May 13, 2012, Mt. St. Helens, Mothers day climb

What a spectacular day!  Although posts by Silaswild et. al. suggest Thursday and/or Friday might have had better corn quality, we had a terrific climb up Sunday morning... wearing dresses of course!  We arrived Saturday evening to a parking lot that was decently full, but not bursting, and were able to find reasonably level patches of snow 15' from the car in the trees for the tents.  We woke up at 4:15am, and all 12 of us were on the trail by 5am (it takes awhile to mobilize 12 people...).  We split into 3 groups at treeline and the first group made it to the summit by 9:40am.  The light breeze on the ascent was so warm!  A couple of us skinned the whole way, others carried skis/boards and booted up.  Summit views were awesome!  Didn't get closer to the crater edge than a brief glimpse of Spirit Lake.  Chilly wind up top made it a bit cold for those of us donning dresses.  The ski down was fantastic and got mushy, but thankfully not super sticky, toward the bottom.  Was able to ski all the way until 100' from the car, only removing skis once for a 15' section of muddy trail.  Beer, grilled sausages, onions, peppers etc. made the parking lot party a perfect cap to a great trip!  Will try to post photos when they are sent to me.