To climb the south-side Worm Flows, the route finding is easy. My advice is to not wait for the ideal weather window because you could be waiting a long time. As we left the parking lot at 6am, I took many spoonfuls of my own advice in regular intervals as we wandered through the dreary dawn clouds and mushy snow that hadn’t had a good freeze in a week or more. The route starts very low at 2800 feet, and I would recommend starting in shoes for any spring descent. After patchy forest snow gave way to volcanic rock bands, there was just enough snow to apply skins by staying in the middle of the gullies. As with all spring Volcano ascents, ski crampons make the going way easier and are an essential for any packing list.
Although lower than other volcanoes, 5500 feet of ascent is nothing to scoff at. Pulling far past the halfway point, the snow remained soft, and our motivation began to collapse just as the faint skin track continued to crumble at our feet. At the most opportune time, Mount Adams began to break through the clouds to our east, and pulled us forward. As we approached the crater rim, the pitch steepened for a few hundred feet and forced us into the climbers' boot pack until giving way to mellow ridge skinning to the summit.
A large cornice guards the crater rim and we were forced to stay many feet back for fear of it collapsing. At this point, the snow had hardened to sheer ice, and we saw many skiers that had arrived before us booting back down their uptrack to below the last steep pitch. Circling the crater towards the west takes you to a small notch in the cornice where it is possible to peer right over the edge into the maw of destruction that was the 1980 eruption. Covered by recent snowfall, we could just make out the hibernating dragon of the Crater Glacier snaking around the lava dome far below, while Mount Rainier poked through the clouds in the distance.
