March 22, 2014, - St Helens Worm Flows

Loaded the camper with wife and gear, picked up a friend in Seattle, and camped Friday night at Marble. Leisurely 0800 start after bacon and eggs.

We ascended climber's left of the standard winter route, crossing a few flow features at about 4600 ft and climbing through the high island of old growth east of  Monitor Point. It was refreshing to have the climb to ourselves with this slight deviation from the sheeple track. Skinning conditions were generally excellent (corn), with occasional patches of alpine popcorn water ice. We avoided a few large areas of blue ice showing through on the south side of the mountain.

It was cold enough for powder snow to remain in the sun near the summit, for the first 1000 ft or so. The proto-corn transition zone was short, leaving the majority of the descent consisting of near perfect corn. We descended the far skier's left side of the Swift Glacier/Snowfield, keeping to the west-leaning shoulder all the way to the convergence of the worm flows. With few venturing this far east, especially below the large central gully, the decent was just as solitary as the climb.

Here are a few photos from the day.



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