Descend into St Helens crater?

I wonder about the heat source in there, impacting the snow stability (for good or bad, I guess). Also, it is just such a geologically unstable place that it gives me the willies.

By geologic standards, none of the slopes inside the crater have had any time to stabilize at all. I can see extreme rock slide/rockfall hazard on a regular basis there, 4 seasons.

by those standards were like what, 50,000 generations of winters away from the 72 hr. window?
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Seriously? No one even mentioned the volcanic hazard? If the mountain burps you die in there.

Fun fact: the new glacier in the crater is the deepest in the lower 48 and the fastest growing in North America.

Seriously? No one even mentioned the volcanic hazard? If the mountain burps you die in there.

Fun fact: the new glacier in the crater is the deepest in the lower 48 and the fastest growing in North America.

I think that hazard applies to the worm-flows (or any other route) as well -- even without a major eruption, a good burp of hydrogen-sulfide gas from the dome could wipe out hundreds of people (particularly on say Mother's day).

Even if everything goes smoothly -- the exit from the crater would certainly be epic -- climbing back up would probably be less work than winding 10-12 miles out the crater and then back around the mountain.