Mt St Helens Climb

In short, this was a tough hike but with amazing views. It was a 5 mile hike (one-way) with a 4800' elevation gain to a altitude of 8600'. The hike involved lots of scrambling over large boulders and the last mile before getting to the crater rim was an endurance testing shuffle up slopes of volcanic ash. For some reason, my legs started cramping 3/4 the way up and a 1/2 hour rest didn't do much to alleviate the pain. Eventually I just decided to push on despite the cramps and finally made it to the top.

Needless to say, I could barely walk the next day (twisting my left ankle several times on the way down didn't help). However, it was all well worth the effort. The views were fantastic - we had a 360 degree panorama of the mountains/volcanoes around us with Mt Rainier, Mt Adams and Mt Hood (all volcanoes in the Northwest) clearly visible from the top. Looking down into the crater, we could see the new dome which is slowly building itself and we could also see and hear the occasional rock slides off the sides of the new dome. Check out Mt St Helens Crater Panorama 2 for an annotated look from the top of the crater rim.

Being on a volcano, ash was everywhere. It was on my sandwich, in my mouth, in my hair and, worst of all, on my camera lens. Hence, if you'll see the images getting darker and darker as the hike progressed and my photos on the crater rim were especially dark.

147 photos | 210 views

items are from between 12 Aug 2006 & 13 Aug 2006.