Mount Saint Helens Adventure

The cover and feature article in this month's National Geographic is on Mount St. Helens. Thirty years ago -- May 18, 1980 -- the volcano blew and created incredible destruction. As you can see from the above photo from National Geographic, before the blast it was an almost perfect volcano cone, after most of north side was blown out and 1,300 feet came off the top. The top photo (also from National Geographic) shows the summit and Mount Adams on the left and Mount Hood on the right.

Below is a photo of the south side yesterday morning. It is still a beautiful mountain and a bit intimidating when one looks up from the base.
Climbing Mount Saint Helens is a great adventure and a physically demanding task. In the winter and spring you can only drive to 2,700 feet and the summit is at 8,363 feet so there is 5,700 feet of ascent and the round trip is 12 miles. The first three miles and 1,300 feet are in treeline. Once we got above treeline there was at least five feet of snow in most areas.

This was my fourth climb of Mount Saint Helens. On prior climbs Julie, Emilie, Marc and Paul have joined me. I had hoped to have Rosie, Andrew and Rebekah come on this adventure but Andrew had a scheduled Scouting campout. Rebekah had a Girls Camp planning meeting and Rosie just can't get excited about long climbs in the snow and ice. So my very good friend, Mike Bowcut, agreed to go with me. It was Mike's first big mountain climb and he was a wonderful climbing partner. The weather forecast was for a mostly cloudy day but once we got on the mountain it was sunny all day long (neither one of us used enough sunscreen and we are paying for that oversight today).

Below I am just above tree line with a long way to go to the top.
The climb has great views of Mount Adams and Mount Hood when you get above treeline. Below Mike is ascending with Mount Adams on the left.
I have never done a climb like this with snowshoes but we were grateful we had packed them along as they were invaluable in negotiating the mushy snow we encountered much of the ascent. Some parts of the climb were extremely steep and it was hard work. Below Mike is coming up a very steep section at about 7,500 feet elevation. Earlier in the climb we had passed a couple with this dog who was eagerly climbing this challenging trail. He said it was her fourth time up the mountain. She would go ahead of her owner and wait for him on the ridges.

By the time we got to the summit we were thankful the mountain blew 30 years ago as it took 1,300 feet off the summit. Below Mike and I share a smile at the summit.
The view from the summit is spectacular as Mount Rainier is featured to the north; Mount Adams to the east; Mount Hood to the South and an up close look into the crater. The edge of the crater is a cornice -- an overhanging crest of snow on a ridge -- and going to the edge is very dangerous as a cornice can break off at any time. A couple of months ago a climber at the summit of Mount Saint Helens went out on the cornice for a picture, it broke off and he fell 1,500 feet to his death. So we were not comfortable getting too close to the edge and that kept us from seeing straight down in the crater. In the photo below you can see the volcanic smoke/plume in the lower center. In the upper right horizon Mount Rainier is reigning with a cloud over its summit.
The descent from the summit is fabulous with a world class glissade -- sliding down the steep portions of the trail on your rear end using an ice axe to control your speed -- most of the way down. We were able to glissade almost 4,000 feet. What took us about three hours to climb we descended in a fraction of that time. The glissade is one of the best parts about this climb and much easier on my knees than hiking down. Below, Mike enjoys a long glissade.
Mike and I agreed to do Mount Adams in June or July. Anyone want to join us for a great adventure on Washington's second highest mountain/volcano? Below is a tantalizing view of Adams.