Mt st Helens summer climbing route conditions

[Brinda]

Hi all

A group of us are going to hike up St Helens this coming weekend. I was wondering if anybody had been up recently and could tell me how much snow there is on the trail. Would an ice axe or crampons be required? Also we are going to camp at Climber's Bivouac the previous night - so wondering if there is snow on the ground there.

Thanks!
Brinda

[ElphabaNorthWest]

I haven't been up there since July 4th and at that time things were still on the winter route, but I have found that the best information is at: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/cu ... port.shtml

Since the current report doesn't recommend ice axes or crampons, that means you don't need them. They are pretty conservative, and were recommending them when I went up. They were somewhat helpful then, but lots of people climbed up with out them.

Have a fun climb!

[Brinda]

Thanks for the info!

[-Q-]

Hi all

A group of us are going to hike up St Helens this coming weekend. I was wondering if anybody had been up recently and could tell me how much snow there is on the trail. Would an ice axe or crampons be required? Also we are going to camp at Climber's Bivouac the previous night - so wondering if there is snow on the ground there.

Thanks!
Brinda

Have a great climb. Would love to hear a trip report after your adventure. We have our climbing permits for August 24th

[wlgjim]

Brinda, I climbed Monitor Ridge yesterday. Ptarmigan trail is about 20% snow covered, but no aids are needed. You can climb Monitor Ridge off snow all the way the to rim (which is also snow free), but if you wish, you could climb the snow field just west of the main trail. If you choose to do that, crampons/yak trax and an axe might be helpful if you reach that point early in the day when the snow is hard. For the descent, an axe might also give an extra measure of protection for a glissade of that snow field, but I and most others I saw yesterday were using only trekking poles. There is minimal snow cover at the Climbers' Bivouac. Have fun! jeff

[Brinda]

Thanks for all the replies. The day we were scheduled to climb turned out to be all cloudy - and after walking for sometime in the boulder field without seeing much- we figured that it just wasn't worth going to the top . We will hopefully get permits next year for a sunny day ...

The portions of the trail that we went on were mostly snowfree with some snow .. but nothing which posed any difficulty.