Jason and I arrived at the parking for the Marble Mountain Sno Park route up the south side of Helens, late. We set up camp in the woods, and it probably took us an hour to get a campfire going so that we could make dinner and finish getting set up. We got to bed late, and subsequently got a late start in the morning.
The first portion of the trail wound its way up in elevation through the forest. Periodically we glimpsed the mountain through the trees.
When the trees started thinning out and we began scrambling over more rock, we did stop to take off some our insulating clothes, lather up with sunscreen, and then continued on.
We got to a location called "Chocolate Falls". It's the remains of an old lava falls. We lost the trail and struggled to locate it around this landmark. After about an hour of wasting time trying to get back on track, we finally gave up and began blazing our own trail up the mountain. It didn't take us long going up the mountain until we hit the deep snow. The hard exterior gave way with each step and in a lot of instances we plunged up to our knees. It was tough going. The next few hours was simply spent "post holing" our own path up the mountain. We each took turns leading the way in order to give the other guy a break.
We could see other climbers already on their descent, but we plunged on. We were exhausted from blazing our own trail and we made slow going, requiring more breaks.
We had one final push to the crater rim. We could see the last was over, and it was still before our mutual agreed upon turn around time. However, the weather had slowly began deteriorating. By this time a large cloud mass had began enveloping the summit, and was moving down the slopes toward us, obscuring the visibility. After much debating we finally realized we had to be safe and make the call to turn around. It would have been unwise to push upward in the poor visibility and risk not being able to see cornices (which could result in plummeting down inside the crater).
Our descent down was much quicker. We learned to glissade and all our exhaustion seemed to disappear as we enjoyed the much quicker method of descent. As we climbed down, we skirted over to the route the other climbers had came up.
The storm continued chasing us down the mountain and we made haste to get off the exposed sides of the mountain. When we did finally reach the tree line, and "Chocolate Falls" again, we discovered the trail crossed it. We had been right there! Had it not been for this misdirection and poor marking of the trail, we could have summited!
Needless to say, we were glad to be back at the car. 4 days of roughing it and climbing had made us ready for a hot shower and something besides freeze dried meals.
Until we return for another attempt!
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