Mount St. Helens

With the bright sunshine and warm temps, it seemed like a good day to check out Mount St. Helens to see how the southern volcanoes were shaping up this year. After a short walk to ~3000', we skinned the rest of the way to the summit without the use of any spiked devices - a good indication that the snow was softening in the sun. As mentioned in the avalanche section, there was plenty of evidence of recent activity, mostly on the ridgelines loaded by the wind. Cornices are relatively trimmed back on these ridges - another testament to the recent warm weather. At lower elevations, lots of texturing exists from rain and wind.

I tried to push snow on the way down to create a wet loose but was only able to get localized piles - it wasn't quite ripe enough to create a consequential slide where I was today. 

Consistent snow coverage begins just below 3000'. All snow encountered today was in various forms of a freeze/thaw cycle. Firm crust, breakable crust, and then softening snow in the bright sunshine. We did not find any dry snow, but did not travel on Northerly aspects. Above ~6800 feet, there was more rime ice, but even that had softened in the sunshine.