Mt St Helens Climb

Tuesday I climbed Mt St Helens with some people from my group at work. It was our group's official "quarterly." It was probably a bit of a stretch for a group outing ... but I think we all had a great time. Allen, Michelle, Jason, Aparna, PK, Bob joined me from the Xeon team ... and Derek (Michelle's fiance) tagged along. We were originally supposed to have 13 people, but a bunch of people had to cancel for various reasons. Almost everyone made it to the top :).


They re-openned the mountain earlier this summer after closing it due to activity a few years back. To climb to the summit, you need to get one of 100 permits that are issued each day. It is not a very long hike - only ~10 miles, but does climb 4500 ft (think 3 Sears Towers). Before the hike, I figured that 4500 ft over 5 miles would be tough, but not that bad. I thought that it was strange that they called the permits "climbing permits" instead of just "permits" or "hiking permits." Well ... after about 2 miles into the hike with very little elevation gain, I discovered why.


When the volcanoe blew up back in 1980, it stopped resembling standard mountains :). Rather than followwing a nice steep trail of switchbacks all the way to the top, the "hike" became a scramble up talus (think bolders) and then through fine rocks (where you take a step and slide back down half way). The initial part of the climb is all through talus, and then breaks through to the sand for the final ascent to the summit.


Here is a picture of Derek and Allen making their way through the talus:





Here is a picture of Bob, Derek, and I taking a break while climbing through the talus with Mt. Adams in the background:





Below is a picture of our crew heading up the sand portion. Bob, Derek, and Allen are in front of me heading up. At this point, we started to get effected by the elevation and the climb was pretty tough. Bob and I adopted the technique of stopping at every rock that was large enough to sit on. I find that it is a lot easier to set small, simple goals at times like this than to look at the top and think about how far away it is.





The view all the way to the summit was fantastic. We could see Mt. Adams to our right and Mt. Hood was behind us. When we got to the summit, we were able to look down into the crater and see Mt. Rainier on the horizon. This was one of the best 360 degree views I have seen in my life. Bob, Allen, Derek, and I hit the summit at about 12:15 ... just in time for lunch.


Below is a picture of the crater (with Mt. Rainier in the background). This picture does not really do the dome justice. It is currently ~1000 ft high. I was talking to some people on top who had done the hike ~6 years ago (before it was closed), and at that time there was basically no dome :).





Here is a picture of Allen, Bob, and I sitting on the rim of the crater shortly after getting to the summit:





See a nice stitch of the crater taken by Allen.


We headed down at about 1:15. After about 15 minutes of cruising down through the sand, we rand into some of the others in our party. They ended up hitting the summit at maybe 2:30, and headed down at 3:00.


-- Waiting for a picture from PK of the second group --


Allen, Derek, and I got back to the parking lot at about 4:30, and waited for the rest of the crew to trickle in. Our total travel time varied from ~8 hours to ~11.


I would highly recommend this "climb" to anyone who is in good shape and understands that it is going to be a bit painful. Everyone who went was very happy about the experience the following day ... but probably only 1/2 were happy with me for dragging them up right after the hike :).


See all our pictures here.