Mount Saint Helens

May 20, 2017
Mt. Saint Helens, 8,366 ft.
Worm Flows Route

For several years, Laura and her sister have done a trip with their father to climb a mountain. This year the annual trip became a family affair. During the planning stages, Laura was looking for something that would be interesting and fun but still within everyone's ability range. Not afraid to push her family just a little, she chose Mt. Saint Helens. The permitting process is tough so when the window opened up in February, Laura was online and reserving enough for everyone. Good thing she was on it because permits for the entire spring season were sold out within an hour. 

Since we were making the trip out to the Pacific Northwest, we decided to make a week of it and add on Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood, or Wy'East as the natives named it. We flew from Denver and met her father, brother, sister and brother in law for dinner. We discussed the weather and what we thought conditions on the mountain would be like. Luckily, we had some first hand insight from Mark, a close family member and one of Portlands chief meteorologists. We came at the right time because it was raining and snowing at home and sunny and clear in Oregon. Mark reported that the weather this week was "unheard of" in the Pacific NW and that we were quite fortunate for such outstanding conditions. 

The following morning we hit the trailhead at 4:30 am and began our 5.5 mile trek up the south side of the mountain that 37 years ago imploded and blew the side and 1,500' feet off the top of itself. The first few miles through the forest were a mix of mud and snow due to the warm weather. We travelled in a group, Laura in back talking her dad's ears off and me out front setting a pace I thought everyone could sustain for a few hours. Brian had been ill for the week prior and still was not feeling good, so there was silence up front while Marvin and Annie cruised in the middle.

 

Once past chocolate falls and at about tree line the snow was consistent. We stopped for a break and feeling a bit better, Brian began distancing himself from the pack. I decided to pick up the pace a bit too and shortly thereafter passed Brian and set my own pace for the top of the beautiful mountain. With 100 permits being issued daily, we certainly were not alone on the gentle slopes to the crater rim, but unlike other very popular mountains, there was no conga line to the top.
I made the summit at 9:50 am with Brian arriving about an hour later. After looking down into the impressive, steaming and continuously growing crater, we relaxed and admired the grand views of Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier, mine and Laura's second objective and Mt. Hood, our third objective volcano for the week.

Brian and I discussed when we expected the rest of the family to make the summit and decided that since the day was beautiful and we likely had 3 hours or so to wait, we should dig out lounge chairs in the summit snow. Within a few minutes we had our boots kicked up and were watching into the distance, talking and laughing about whatever came to mind at that moment on top of our world for the day.

As expected, around 1 pm Laura, her father, sister and brother in law made their way to the summit. We were proud of the group for all obtaining our goal for the day. Laura passed out cheese, crackers, dried fruit and jerky for everyone while I worked on making my glissading sled out of a trash bag. Within minutes we were all off, rapidly sliding down the mountain we had just summited, using only our ice axes to control our speed. Making it back to the car in just a few hours, everyone was happy with their accomplishment and proud of one another. We headed back to town for pizza and beer and shared pictures and good conversation before retiring to our hotel rooms for the night.

The next morning we shared a breakfast table, said our goodbyes and parted ways. Everyone headed home, but Laura and I had bigger plans. Mt. Rainier, we're coming for you!