Mount St. Helens - Monitor Ridge
South Cascades
As of August 1st, 2026, the Monitor Ridge trail to Mount St. Helens is snow-free. Hikers are encountering challenging conditions including strong winds and rain, with some turning back due to weather, as reported on August 1st and July 28th. The trail involves a strenuous ascent with significant scree and boulder fields, requiring careful navigation using trail posts. Road access to the Climber's Bivouac trailhead is generally good, with ample parking noted in recent reports. Prepare for highly variable weather, even on clear-looking days, and consider bringing layers, gloves, and eye protection.
generated from 44 reports
Sources
We hiked on August 1st hoping to beat the rain. We started on the trail at 6am and were out of the trees before 7am. Somewhere around 9am the weather started changing and the clouds rolled in. Wind an...
We arrived at Climber's Bivouac around midnight. Thankfully, there was still a lot of space to camp in the clearing in the middle of the parking loop, and we had no trouble finding sites in the dark.W...
It says 4300 feet on 5 miles, but that's quite a cheat. Actually it feels more like 5000 feet on 2 miles! It is much more strenuous than any I-90 hikes. Think about the summit push on the Mailbox peak...
Climbed Thurs.July 30th on a private climb with Mt. St. Helens Institute for our group fromTeam Survivor NW. JUST WOW. This is the 2nd time we have hired MSHI and will do it again. They are caring, su...
This is an amazing hike and my 6th time doing it, it's become my "mental, physical, and how-old-am-I" challenge hike! haha. I keep saying it's my last time, then I end up doing it again. For context, ...
Arrived at the trailhead around 9pm the night before and tried to get some sleep in the car. Woke up around 2:30am and began hiking around 3:45am, back to the car around 12. It was like 8hrs total!The...
we arrived and 6pm the day prior and slept in our vehicle - was worried about finding a spot on a sunny holiday weekend but had no problem parking in the lot, some people also camping in the woods nea...
My first volcano in the U.S. - Mount St. Helens.It was quite a challenging hike despite not being technically difficult. The ascent took me 4 hours.But I celebrated too early. The trail to the summit ...
With a permit in hand, we rolled the dice on the weather conditions and it came up perfect. Broke out above the cloud deck around 6500ft and had light, variable winds up top.Road: Lots of sharp rock...
Perfect weather to summit St. Helen’s. We camped at the trailhead and started around 4:30 AM. We brought gloves for the boulder fields, the volcanic rock is very rough so they were nice to have. Easy ...
Want to ask something specific about Mount St. Helens - Monitor Ridge?
Use AI-powered search to dig into trip reports for this trail.
Search Mount St. Helens - Monitor Ridge