Epic glissading on Mt St Helens

TLDR: First time up St Helens for the whole family with epic glissading on the way down
Since Val and Katie were planning to climb Mt St Helens with their scout troop, me and the boys decided to go along but instead of camping in town we decided to hike in part way on Friday night. I totally underestimated the traffic in Seattle so we arrived at the trailhead at 9pm and were hiking at 9:30. Despite that, we still got about 2 miles in and set up our tent right before Chocolate Falls around 11:15pm.
The weather forecast had been getting worse over the previous couple of days but luckily the parking lot was dry. The hike got a little drizzly and it rained on and off through the night, but mostly tapered off by morning. There were a few groups walking by before sunrise and it got busier as we started waking up. We had a hot breakfast, packed up our day packs and headed out around 7:20.
Lots of people on the trail. The snow started out pretty soft but there's a solid boot pack so no need for snowshoes. Microspikes were helpful, but not required. Despite the forecast, the sun came out multiple times so we got great views of the mountain below us.
Val and Katie started from the parking lot around 7am (in full rain). We had radios and managed to connect once when they were about a mile in and we were above Chocolate falls but then her channel switched so I was worried they ran into problems and turned around. Luckily we had cell reception, I texted her from the weather station and kept going. About 30 minutes later they got there and she messaged me back, so we slowed down and they caught up to us pretty quickly.
The last 2000 feet of elevation are very frustrating as you get to a high point thinking you're almost there and see another steep mountain side in front. There were also very few people heading down and those were all skiers, so I was pretty sure we still had a while to go.
The weather turned windier and the clouds came in so a bunch of the last approach were in a white out, but things cleared up a little right when we got to the top. We bundled up, ate a quick lunch and headed back down as it was getting cold.
The way down went significantly faster. The snow was cold and soft at the top so we could run down and then the glissading started. Because of the recent snowfall, the chutes were soft, smooth, and went on for forever. One chute close to the end was like a bobsled course.
We got back to Chocolate falls with ominous clouds overhead so booked it back to our tent, packed up as fast as we could and headed out. Grabbed some pizza in Cougar and 3 hours later were back at home.

[@thosearentpillows5638]

Holy, that’s a lot of people. Way more than summer with the 100/day limit.