Conditions:Fossil Creek (Mt. St. Helens)-20260628051550
Latest: |
27 Jun 2026 (28 days ago) |
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| Reported by: | PsychoWard (55 reports) | |
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| Location: | Fossil Creek (Mt. St. Helens) | |
| Quality: | Good |
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| Waterflow: | Moderate Low |
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| Wetsuit: | Full wetsuit |
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| Water temperature: | ||
| Difficulty: | Normal |
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| Time: |
Team: 2 people with experience level Intermediate to Advanced
Trip report URL:
Comments: Great day in the fossils. West fossil is good - it's got some good down climbs and some nice short drops, but there is a lot of really slippery creek walking. East fossil is definitely the highlight. I'd return again and just do East. These really should be listed as two separate ropewiki pages.
All anchors we did find were in great shape. We ghosted a couple things and placed webbing in a few places where anchors were stated, but no webbing was found. Plenty of natural anchor options.
All condition reports
| Date | Quality | Waterflow | Wetsuit | Difficulty | Time | Team | Reported by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Moderate Low
| Full wetsuit
| Normal | | 2 people Intermediate to Advanced | PsychoWard (55 reports) | |
Comment: Great day in the fossils. West fossil is good - it's got some good down climbs and some nice short drops, but there is a lot of really slippery creek walking. East fossil is definitely the highlight. I'd return again and just do East. These really should be listed as two separate ropewiki pages.
All anchors we did find were in great shape. We ghosted a couple things and placed webbing in a few places where anchors were stated, but no webbing was found. Plenty of natural anchor options. | |||||||
| Great | Moderate Low
| Full wetsuit
| Normal | | 4 people | K arc (414 reports),Treyshoe (101 reports) | |
Comment: Returning to Fossil, we descended the west trib, jumped out, then went over to descend the east side. Wow, a couple nice technical sequences, waterfalls, and pools. Two very short slides add to the appeal of Fossil East, together with an easy walk out. Too bad it's so short. The allure was dampened somewhat by target shooters who'd set up shop just down the road from our exit car. Disconcerting to exit to the sounds of gunfire, but the creek is great. (This area may be popular with target shooters.) Water levels had dropped significantly since last visiting in May. Fossil East was fun and splashy. Possibly Fossil East should be broken out into it's own ropewiki page.
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| Good | Moderate
| Thin wetsuit
| Normal | | 4 people Intermediate to Advanced | EricAbseil (9 reports) | |
Comment: I give East Fossil **** and West **. West is worth doing for sure - more raps, all decent, but East was stunning despite having only 4 raps. Will do again. And again.
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| Good | Moderate
| Drysuit 
| Normal | | 3 people | K arc (414 reports) | |
Comment: No other anchors were found, so likely our visit was a first descent. Pretty action-packed creek without much creek-walking until the bottom. Seemed like a substantial increase in water between top and bottom (possible snow-melt up in the heights). Very cold water. Few snow patches still visible in the upper basin. Had originally planned to run East Fossil too, but one member of our team was getting cold and East Fossil sports a lot more water, so decided to call it a day.
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