St. Helens

On Sunday we hiked to the top of Mt. St. Helens. It is a looong day hike, and well worth the effort for the views and the glissade (slide) down.

We camped Saturday night and got up early Sunday to start on the hike. Here is our whole group of 8 at the very beginning. We started off on the hike just before 8am and returned to our camp around 5pm. Only 6 made it to the summit. Despite summiting the past 13 years, the wind kept a couple folks from making it to the top.

There were a couple other parties headed up that day as well, including a group of high school kids from a Portland school (hence the short bus in the background - that wasn't ours ; ) that were on their graduation trip. We crossed paths with them a couple times - a really neat group of kids learning mountaineering skills.

Only a set amount of people are allowed to make the trip per day - you need to reserve and pay for permits in advance to make the trip and sign in and out at the local ranger station.

About 2 miles into the hike when its still just gradually uphill and warm - around 9am. Sunscreening up. Despite several applications of 70 spf and zinc, both Ashley and I had sun and wind burn and are still peeling all over our faces.

Early on the way up, although you can tell we are just about to get above the timberline since the trees are sooo tiny. This is Craig with his telemark skis - he hiked up with them till we hit snow, then skied up, took off the skins and skied back down. I could barely drag myself up this thing, much less carrying a set of skis.

Early on. The whole group in line. Still in short sleeves.

Climbing up one of the lava rock ridges. Its crazy to think this was liquid rock flowing down in our lifetime. At this point you can start to see how far you're coming up and realize how slowly you're moving and how much further there is to go.

Early on. Hiking in the snow but it still feels warm from sun and hiking hard. Still in short sleeves.

Still climbing that rock ridge. Slow going. Mt. Adams in the distance.

Still warm enough for short sleeves. Most of the party is ahead of me at this point (you can see them above us). A couple folks were behind us, but they ended up turning back eventually.


Ashley was extremely supportive and stuck it out with me towards the back of the pack. Trudging up that snow is just really slow and as you look up it seems never ending. That is a false summit up ahead of us and there were still many more before we could even see the top. Once you know you are looking at the top it feels much more encouraging.

Starting to get higher and COLD. A VERY windy lunch with a fabulous view of Mt. Hood to the south.

Layering up. We put on our down jackets despite working really hard  (the sun and physical work were keeping us warm earlier despite the snow)

Mt Adams zoomed in from our lunch spot.

We arrived at the top around 2:30pm. Here is the view from the top ridge looking down over the edge of the crater at the lava dome inside. The "dome" steadily grows every day and we could smell sulfur (and see smoke puffs? maybe they were just clouds?)

Lava dome and west (?) side of St. Helen's crater.

Mt. Rainer in the far distance and east (?) craggy ridge of St. Helen's crater in foreground.

It was so windy I had to hold onto my hat. I can't believe you can't SEE the wind here. We look all relaxed but it was hard just standing up. You can see foot steps in the snow and that is as close as anyone dared get to the edge of the crater.



The glissade down! We slid down 3/4 of the way on our butts with contractor grade garbage bags. Seriously the most fun I have had in so so so long. It was AWESOME. You can see how small the rest of the party looks up above me - each slide was really long and we got some really good speed.  I have some great videos of us zipping down, but they won't upload for some reason

The wind had died down, it was crystal clear blue skies and the views of surrounding peaks were just beautiful.

 

Do'h - wet camera. 6 of the 7 here made it to the top. There was still a couple miles back to camp from this point but it was all downhill hiking. We made it back to camp around 5pm.

The group parted ways after a beer and packing up at camp. The Seattle folks headed back north and Ashley, Michelle and I headed the 1.5 hours south back to Portland and straight to our favorite wings joint for beer and grub. We didn't get home until about 10pm Sunday night and Ashley and I passed out in bed immediately. We woke up for work Monday a.m. tired, sore and sunburned and limped along on caffeine and ibuproferin for a couple days. It was a super rewarding adventure though and well worth it! Our faces are just starting to really peel today from the wind and sunburn....