Mt. Helen

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 4/28/2025, By: climb2ski
Info: Skied this on Saturday 4/26 Did not get started till 10 (an hour sooner might have been better) 3 hours up and 1 hour down. The road is covered in snow and was an easy tour. Leaving the road and to tree line was the crux - some manky sections. Above tree line went well, you can be on snow all the way. 

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 2/4/2025, By: bigfoot1
Info: Nice warm day! Lower portion is nice and hard packed from skinners and I followed a skin track up. Barefooted from car to wheeler trail (?) and then snowshoed up from there until snow went away at 12k ft and then it is more or less dry to the summit. Didn't even need spikes! Couldn't find a jar or ledger but I only dug around in the snow for like 5 seconds before I gave up. Only one slightly sketchy spot that creeped me out around 11.6k but slope angle map says it was 27-29 deg so I pushed on and all was well. Stayed mostly out of avvy terrain today. Looks like a really nice spot to backcountry ski. 

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 12/25/2024, By: jotey
Info: The roads on which you hike for this peak are all packed down. We put on snowshoes when leaving Crystal Lakes Road - and we needed them, in very deep snow. We broke trail through the forest and up through the very steep gully thats between 11,350 and 11,550. Above this we stuck to the right of the gpx until about 12,200 to avoid the gully/slope to the left since small chucks of snow were breaking off and revealed an unstable layer below, even though avy danger was low. Then we went straight for the top, keeping snowshoes on for traction, though we could have take them off at that point. Great view at the top, with light snow fallling. 

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 10/1/2024, By: wolfgangstiller
Info: Still summer conditions. The route published here is tricky to follow below tree line so it would be easiest with the gpx file. 

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 5/11/2024, By: coopergould
Info: Skinned trailhead to summit with excellent coverage the entire time. No billy goating necessary. Pacific and Crystal stayed hidden in the clouds but hopefully these pics can be useful. Great quick tour! 

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 7/5/2023, By: __brandonwhite__
Info: Free of snow except for small avoidable spots the whole way. Soil was moist and loose in the steepest spots. Poles were very helpful Very beautiful wildflowers currently: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PhcQGEetBynypVJR6 

Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal
Posted On: 7/1/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Climbed Mount Helen today along with Father Dyer, Crystal & Peak 10. Mount Helen was a grassy class 1 walk up that was 100% free of snow. There was a goat on the summit that was pretty territorial, so just be wary! 

Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal
Posted On: 7/5/2022, By: arthurtect
Info: Ascended up Helen's east slope (green and covered with wildflowers), then traversed to Father Dyer and Crystal (dry and awesome). Descended down Crystals south slope (hill of loose rocks) and then connected to the Mohawk Lakes trail back to our vehicle. Mountain goats and Big Horn sheep and every flower imaginable! 

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 6/12/2022, By: JaredJohnson
Info: Climbed Helen Mtn, traversed to Father Dyer, descended Father Dyer's East Ridge. Very little snow and all easily avoidable until below the east ridge near treeline, a small snowfield or two which did not require me to take out the spikes or axe that I had brought. It did look like the surrounding peaks such as crystal had some snow on the ridge. I have photos I might get around to posting 

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 4/19/2021, By: nedryarson
Info: Was able to skin from trailhead to summit except for one very brief area just below tree line where we had to navigate through the cliffs. There's probably a better route through but we made it fine. Skied directly off the summit (so it counts haha) but had to dodge a lot of rocks for the first 100 yards. Snow predictably gets deeper as you descend. Didn't see anyone else on Helen but ran into a couple groups afterwards that had skied Crystal and their stoke levels were very high. 

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 4/10/2021, By: CaptainSuburbia
Info: Booted up the road. Wore snowshoes from about 11,500 feet to the summit. Booted all the way down with plenty of glissades. Trailhead was crowded but only saw two others on the peak. 

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 3/19/2021, By: ClimberSkierDave64
Info: Skied the East slopes of Mt. Helen. There is now continuous snow to the summit although the last couple hundred feet are somewhat thin. There wasn't a skin track since the last storm but we put one in all the way to the top. The steep slope can be avoided by going lookers left through some lower angle trees which is where we put our skin track. Above that, everything is very safe. A compression test near treeline resulted in a failure at the old/new snow interface about 8 inches down after 17 taps. The deeper weak layer were unreactive. The snow was very powdery and fun on the way down until just below treeline! After that the snow got sticky and heavy. It probably has a nasty suncrust up to 12,000 feet now, so it might be best to wait until after the next storm. 

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 3/7/2021, By: macg91
Info: Enough snow to ski a continuous line from about 12.8k down to the Spruce Creek Trailhead. Final 300 feet to the summit are windswept and bare. Variable snow conditions above tree line, but overall a nice ski descent. 

Route: From father dyer
Posted On: 6/5/2020, By: rhammond530
Info: Pictures of Mount Helen from Father Dyer. Looks like it is in. 

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 9/21/2019, By: supranihilest
Info: Helen's east slopes are steep and seemingly unending. The route is quite obvious up the east slopes - just hike up, really - and mostly solid. The summit will probably hit you very suddenly, as the slopes are nearly uniform from the road all the way to the summit.