Poaching Mt St Helens

Did anyone see the front page of the May 3rd Oregonian Newspaper (Portland).  It is a closeup picture of the "fin" growing in the Mt St Helens crater.  If you look closely, you can see obvious machine tracks near the bottom of the picture.  They look like snowmobile tracks and have that typical high-marking signature shape.  It's hard to tell exactly where the tracks are but my guess is near the southeast side of the crater rim.  I'd love to hear other's opinions on this poaching evidence!

Which leads me to this:

It's been a great snow year and MSH is ripe for skiing right now but it's officially closed.  Does anyone know if there is any critical mass of climbers/skiers up MSH such that the forest service is not enforcing the the no-climbing rule?  Does anyone know of any recent climbing reports?  Does anyone know the forest service's enforcement patterns, if any?

Personally, climbing MSH is a risk I'd be willing to take in terms of exposure to volcanic ejecta.  I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay fines, etc though but if they're not enforcing the climbing closure then...

Thanks for your opinions.

JJS

If you die, we split your gear. 

I was under the impression that it has been reopend. Am I wrong? One of my friends went down there for a kite-skiing gathering, and he said that the kiting got rained out but he climbed & skied it the next day.

I have received a conditional climbing reservation to get a permit...(Yeah FS, that's not confusing) for memorial day weekend however I am not sure that the mtn. has been reopened officially for climbing?

Mt. St. Helens is currently closed to climbing, but are taking applications for reservations in case they decide to open it. 

www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/mount-st-helens/

Their website is really confusing, as they're accepting reservations now, and above their May 2006 calender they say permits will be available at Jacks starting May 15th. But the mountain is closed for climbing.

I called and talked to someone who said that the mountain is closed for climbing until July 1.

The advance reservation permits and those to be given away a Jacks will only be good to actually permit a legal climb once they decide to open for climbing, which sounds like July 1, unless they decide otherwise between now and then.