A Chamber of Commerce Day on St Helens

We were able to get 2 permits and at 6:12 Saturday we hit the trail. The sky was as close to perfectly clear as I have ever seen. We were in the snow at 1.1 miles into the climb. Once we cleared the tree line the snow was spotty for a while and we were able to hike on dry ground for maybe 1/4 of the next 2 miles or so. The winter route has some major differences from the route from the Climber's Bivouac - most notably a steep section with a false summit. As I passed a couple on this section I even told them we were almost at the top - I call that Adventure Pamming someone. We found a bare spot after the false summit where people were resting before the final section to the REAL summit. We dropped our packs - taking only what we needed - and made the last push. The rest is here in the pictures. Enjoy!