Wow! This was my first time on St. Helens. What an amazing experience. The weather could not have been better. Perfect bluebird skies and lovely warm temperatures the entire day, coupled with virtually no wind and endless views made this a day to remember forever! Started the hike at Climber's Bivouac at 7:30 a.m. My climbing partner planned to skin/ski the hike (whenever possible), and I was strictly hiking. We geared up and hit the trail, along with another couple and their black lab. The weather was a bit cool, so we started in pants and light fleece jackets. By time we reached the treeline, we shed the jackets and converted the pants to shorts for the balance of the hike up and back. A word about the Ptarmigan Trail and the first couple miles of the hike. Yes, there is still considerable snow on some parts of the trail, and there are two large blowdowns to deal with. However, about a mile in or so, the trail splits and a secondary path veers up to the left. This route is a bit steeper, but it eliminates having to deal with the blowdowns. However, by picking this route, you also miss the "last chance" bathroom, since you bypass it altogether. From the treeline to the top, there is significant snow cover. The ridgelines are exposed, so we alternated between kicking steps in the snow (preferable on all but the steepest pitches) and scrambling on the boulders (and there were some fairly big scrambles on some parts). Heavy-duty hiking boots made my job much easier, and I saw quite a few folks with actual mountaineering boots, too. (I also saw one 20ish year old guy wearing tennis shoes...I would NOT recommend that, but I did see him at the summit, so theoretically it is do-able...but really not safe IMHO. I did see him sporting a fresh knee bandaged that wasn't there earlier, so...) Also, you should have an ice axe or trekking poles for the climb (we took both) right now. A few people wore crampons (including the other couple that climbed with us), but I didn't find them necessary with the warm sun and soft snow conditions we had on Saturday. I was supremely grateful for my trekking poles, though! The final 1,000 feet or so can be climbed in either snow or on the ash/sand/rocks. However, I found the snow a lot easier. Firmer footholds with less backsliding. As they say, though, it's always the last few hundred feet which are the worst. We were tired and the summit never seemed to get any closer. Of course, it did eventually and wow, was the work to get up there worth it! The views from the summit were stellar. We were able to see Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson and (we think) Mt. Shasta....way, way, way off in the distance. It was breathtaking to see all the volcanic peaks strung along in a line from Canada to California. The summit was quite crowded when we arrived, and I saw a few children on top (maybe in the 8-11 year old range), too. There were so many people that we had a tough time finding a spot to set our packs and sit down. Thankfully, the largest group were getting ready to descend, so the area cleared out a bit and we could enjoy relative peace and quiet for a little while before heading down ourselves. It was so warm at the summit we remained in shorts and t-shirts for most of the hour we spent on top. When descending, I glissaded much of the way and my partner skied down. Snow conditions were quite soft and slushy. I heard reports of people glissading into rocks or other people. That didn't seem to be a problem on Saturday. The snow field is wide, wide, wide and the glissade tracks are far away from the climbing area. Plus, the snow was very soft, which made stopping quite easy, even without an ice axe. Still, our climbing partners said they saw two ladies glissade into rocks near the bottom. All of us made it down without incident, and had a blast! Once we hit the treeline, we shed the Gore-tex pants and jackets we had put on (strictly for glissading), and finished the hike in shorts and t-shirts. We opted for the original trail to return to Climber's Bivouac and encountered two major blowdowns. They were navigable, but I would have preferred not to have to clamber over them while so tired. We made it back to our car quite spent, but grateful for the fantastic weather and beautiful views we experienced throughout the day. It was a perfect hike. My photos from the hike can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150259685084214.347717.544699213&l=d57a3179f5&type=1